The Jar of Marmalade
by talltwin18
Summary: Harry's been kidnapped, will he be rescued? And how will his parents and 2 brothers help him heal.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue:

The aim of this story is to eventually become a set of three stories. They are all based around Harry and all the events of HP book 1-6 remain the same except for a few character changes. Sirius, Lily and James never died and Harry lives with the 3 of them and his 2 older brothers Andy and J at Potter Manor. I have read many stories where Harry has younger siblings but I love the relationship between Charlie and Bill and Ginny and wanted to try and recreate that for Harry.

Andy is 29 and works as an auror with James who is Head of the Auror Department. He is engaged to Kat (Katarina), a dark haired Hispanic liaison between the Ministry and foreign Ministry's in Spain, Portugal and France.

J is 27 and works as a Healer like his long term partner Matt. J flew through Healer training with flying colours and is head of a diagnostic team and also has a muggle medicine degree. Matt works in paediatrics.

Harry and Ginny never broke up at the end of HBP but Dumbledore was still killed. Ron and Hermione professed their pent up feeling for each other soon after Harry and Ginny and are now a couple.

For the purposes of reducing confusion, in this story the Deathly hallows won't exist. Too much of a headache trying to keep tracking of who has them all! Horcruxes do exist and the Order knows about them.

This story begins several months after the end of HBP. For ease of timings, I am assuming that school finished early after Dumbledore's death. Therefore this story begins around July before Harry's 7th year begins.

I know this might be confusing and that I have changed a lot but isn't that the whole point of fan fiction, to write things how you would have liked them to happen so that it was I'm trying. I know it might not be what a lot of people like but I have tried to incorporate all the best bits of stories I have read and my own ideas as well.

As someone very expertly put; Harry Potter is J K Rowling's toys, we just play with.

I hope you enjoy the following and try and be nice as this is my first fanfic.

Thanks J

Chapter 1:

Andy's POV

3 months

91 days

2184 hours

131040 minutes.

It was how long his chair had sat empty at the dining table.

It was how long he had listened to his mother cry herself to sleep to the whispered words of comfort from his father.

It was how long he had automatically put out the marmalade at breakfast each morning before realising that there was no-one there to eat it, as his Mum only bought it for her youngest son.

It was how long he hadn't let go of Kat's hand, afraid that if he did she might disappear too.

It was how long he saw his brother hold Matt's hand with similar thoughts for his nearly brother.

This was the length of time it had been since Harry had been taken.

It was a week after they had all returned tear stained from Hogwarts. Dumbledore's funeral had cut the school year short for everybody and they were all sent home in an attempt to regain some normality to their summers'. Over that short space of time Andy and J watched as their little brother built his life back together after losing one of the most important men in his life.

That painfully long week didn't see Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron ever far apart. They could often be seen with the girls in their guys' arms, tears tracking all of their faces and offering words of support that only the four of them could lend each other. And slowly they began to come back to life.

Andy was amazed at the strength his little brother showed, but wasn't surprised based on the horrors of Harry's first 6 years at Hogwarts. He had faced a 3 headed dog, Quirell, acramantula, a basilisk, Lucius Malfoy, dementors, werewolf Remus, a Hungarian horntail, mer-people, Umbridge, death eaters, Sirius nearly dying in front of him, being possessed, Draco Malfoy, Snape, Inferi, Dumbledore's and Dobby's death, around 10 attempts on his life and 6 encounters with Voldemort all whilst battling raging teenage hormones. It was hardly a childhood at all, though Andy, his Mum, Dad and J had all tried to give him every childhood experience but none of them could deny that during that week he had become a man.

On Sunday, the whole family was over at the Manor for Sunday brunch as was tradition; all the Weasleys (minus Charlie) plus Fleur and Hermione, Remus and Tonks, Sirius and all the Potters plus their other halves. Andy remembered the arguments between the twins and Molly Weasley as they and Sirius charmed all the boiled eggs to leap out of their serving bowl and start singing a 4 part acapella version of 'How do you like your eggs in the morning?'

This had everyone falling of theirs chairs with laughter as Fred, George and Sirius all took bows and Mrs Weasley began to scold the twins. It was at this point when Sirius had sheepishly sat down and attempted to hide his beetroot face from Mrs Weasley's wrath as the twins were given all the blame for the rather ingenious prank.

After everything had calmed down Lily had asked Harry to go and fetch the teapot from the kitchen which he had done begrudgingly as it meant leaving Ginny's side, Andy remembered with a slight smile.

The next thing he knew there was a loud pop followed by the unmistakable smash of china hitting a stone floor. The 2 families had burst into the kitchen wands drawn to see a broken teapot and a flash of Harry's unruly black hair thrown over the shoulder of a black hooded figure before both disappeared with a pop leaving the smashed remains of the teapot, a luke-warm brown puddle and silence.

Everything seemed to slow down to a stop and move impossibly quickly at the same time. Order members flitted in and out of the house moving there wands over every inch of the kitchen and trying to understand where Harry had been taken. His mother had sat down at the kitchen table and wept as J stared around the room in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

And now it was 3 months later.

And the marmalade still sat in the cupboard.

Things had followed in a similar pattern. Order members were constantly flooing in and out of the house, so much so that the kitchen was taking on an eerie green hue. James, Sirius and Mr Weasley only returned to their homes once everyone else was asleep in bed and left again before they had begun to stir. Lily had kept a brave face, the result of having such a strong auror for a husband and not wanting to seem weak, but nearly every night she could be found in the doorway to Harry's room staring around at the maroon walls. Andy and Kat and J and Matt all moved back into the boys' childhood bedrooms, Andy and Kat leaving their jobs in El Ministerio de Magia and apartment in Barcelona and J and Matt taking advantage of their holiday time from St Mungo's to leave their terraced house in Kent for Potter manor. This reunion of the Potters should have brought laughter and petty arguments to the house, and Lily would moan at her 3 boys when they would play increasingly more ridiculous pranks on each other seeking the perfect revenge.

But there were no arguments. No laughter. And no hours of the boys holing themselves in their rooms while they concocted the most ingenious plans. And then one day, 3 months after Harry disappeared, things changed.

The dining room was a mirror image of how it had been for the first time since that dark night. But it was like an inverted reflection. Instead of laughter a cold silence filled the room, broken only by quiet conversations between family members. Instead of piles of steaming food, only clasped hands lay on the table and instead of an animated smile, Ginny's face was empty of emotion and eyes haunted as she stared at the empty chair beside her.

The tension in the room was broken as the three people they had all been waiting for entered in a flash of emerald flames.

James looked around the room as Remus and Sirius stepped next to him and he said 3 words that filled Andy's heart with equal measures of joy and fear.

'Malfoy Manor. Now.'

Chapter 1

The group of 5 darkly clad men crawled out of the grate that served as their entrance to the supposedly impregnable Malfoy Manor. They had known from the off that apparition wouldn't have been an option to them as anti-apparition wards would have been placed across the house and they didn't have a house elf, as Harry's captors had. James had an unnerving feeling that the wards served more as a method of encaging the residents of the house rather than as a protection from unwanted visitors. After all, he thought pulling himself to his feet; Voldemort is hardly likely to feel the need for protection.

Sirius dropped several nearby bricks under the grate keeping the entrance to the sewer pipes, that they had just climbed out of, open.

'However this turns out, I have a feeling we might need a quick exit,' he said in response to the puzzled looks he was getting from Ron and Andy.

'Good thinking,' replied Andy while Ron simply nodded in agreement.

James, Remus, Sirius, Andy and Ron looked around at the room they had climbed into. It was small with a heavy wooden door facing them and a few simple splintering benches lining the other 3 walls. James led the group out of the door and they found themselves in a long corridor. Like the small chamber they had just left, the floors and walls consisted of smooth grey stone bricks. Lining the long corridor were a dozen other wooden doors all with similar rooms beyond, they discovered, though in some the benches were exchanged in favour of small canvas cots and several were completely bare save for a set of iron handcuffs chained to the wall.

'I think we're in the dungeons,' whispered James to Remus who stood at his shoulder looking at the handcuffs dangling from the wall.

Sirius smirked in response, 'Trust Malfoy to have a dungeon in the bottom of his house. Most people have a basement full of junk, or a wine cellar now that would be classy.'

At this typically Sirius piece of randomness Ron cracked a small smile that disappeared quickly when the severity of the situation seeped back into him like the penetrating cold of the surrounding stone walls.

'Wait, this is good though,' Andy said turning to his Father, his eyed lighting up. 'Isn't it Dad?'

'It is indeed son. If Harry is here, then the logical place for them to keep him would be in the dungeons,' resolving the confused looks of the other 3. 'This could work.'

With that thought the determination in the group rose visibly as they all stood straighter and exchanged looks filled with hope. They separated into 2 groups as per the plan they had made before leaving Potter manor. James, Remus and Sirius took the lead, in one group, as they began to make their way down the corridor with Andy and Ron following closely behind them as the second group. The plan was that if they did find Harry then James, Sirius and Remus would stand as guards while Andy and Ron would grab Harry and run, hopefully before the situation became too unbalanced in numbers for the 3 marauders to cope with.

They slowly reached the end of the corridor and found 2 pathways open to them. The left opened up into a large cavernous room with a set of ascending worn stone steps at the far end. Assuming that that was the entrance to the rest of the Manor the group took the other path, following the corridor straight on. The passageway began to slope downwards ever so slightly and the icy temperature of the dungeon seemed to drop by 10 degrees if that was even possible.

'Did anyone else notice it suddenly got a hell of a lot colder in here?' Sirius asked not really anticipating an answer when Remus and James said one word in perfect unison that normally would have had him cracking jokes about the pair being made for each other and were they going to start finishing each other's sentences' now. However that one word instead banished all humour from his mind as he felt his bones turn to ice.

'Dementors.'

Harry's POV

Harry had no idea how long he had been here. In his cage.

He had attempted to keep track of the days in the beginning. He based it on the one meal of stale bread and water he was given a day. But as the methods of torture had become more imaginative, and with that imagination more pain, he found all logical thought abandoning his mind. All he was left with was the pain and the gradually growing piece of hope that eventually the death eaters would get bored with him and finish him off. He hoped... no, he prayed for his death.

He learnt quickly never to underestimate these seemingly dense dark followers. If he was being whipped they would demand he stayed silent or else. The first time, he was consumed with the pain and let a cry. He never did it again.

They could be surprisingly thorough with punishment.

It was after this incident that Harry's mind gave a last ditch attempt at self preservation and he threw Harry into unconsciousness. What a mistake.

The one thing he would never succumb to was the pull of his eyelids. Never again would he close his eyes for fear of once again experiencing the tormenting nightmare charm that passed into him as his magic passed out the conductor to support the anti-apparation charm. How ironic that Harry was providing the power for his prison, he was imprisoning himself. If he fell asleep then the charm would force him through nightmares of his greatest fears including his family abandoning him and throwing him out. It was their way of controlling his whole life, including his dreams, leaving him no way of escape. No freedom.

He looked with a hint of amusement at the handcuffs around his wrists, chaining him to his cage. He hardly knew why they bothered with them; he was so weak he could barely lift his head. He barely even flinched anymore as they taunted him from the darkness surrounding the cage. His cage.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

'This changes nothing,' Remus announced in a determined voice.

'Remy is right,' James said with a hand each on the shoulder of Remus and Andy. 'We stick to the plan. Sirius, Remy and I will keep any dementors back if we come across them and you 2 focus on getting Harry,' looking at Andy and Ron.

The young auror and DA member nodded back at this and they all prepared themselves for what they would find around the next corner.

The passage flattened and opened out into a cavern similar to the one they had already passed containing the stairs. This one, however, was evidently magical in construction as it was not only much larger, about the size of Hogwart's Great Hall, but had an impossibly high ceiling considering the manor that rested above the room. It soon became apparent as to the design of the room as the group looked up and saw the floating black cloaks of 5 dementors circling the vast ceiling. The rest of the room was empty save for a battered old table that stood near them at the entrance to the room and held an assortment of instruments of torture from whips, hammers, pokers and other brutal tools whose use was a mystery to even the experienced aurors among them, but none of them had any really desire to know their purpose.

In the centre of the room was a platform about 4 feet above the ground and atop this was a cage. It was not a prison or a dungeon but a cage. That was the only way of describing it. It was a 3 feet cube of rusting iron bars. And there curled into a ball in one corner of the monstrosity was the unmistakable raven haired figure of Harry.

'Andy, Ron go!' James cried stepping into the room and casting a patronus between his trapped son and the merciless skeletal grasping hands of the dementors. Sirius and Remus followed suit as Ron and Andy tore across the room to Harry. Andy flung a curse at the small door of the cage and it flung of its hinges clattering noisily to the floor.

The loud noise appeared to have gained the attention, if all be it the quite delirious attention, of Harry. Harry, thinking he was being fetched for more punishment, curled impossible smaller into the corner he hid himself into.

Andy, seeing his baby brother for the first time in too many months, reached for Harry's shoulder and pulled him away from the corner and out of the cage where Harry found his feet and clutched, knuckles white, onto the bars of his cage for support as he looked up into the face of his torturer.

'Andy?' Harry croaked in response to the figure standing before him, his voice hoarse from dehydration and screaming.

'Harry, it's me. We all came for you, me, dad, Ron, Sirius and Remy,' replied Andy taking in the confused and empty look in Harry's eyes.

Harry then looked up to see the gangly figure of Ron stood to the left of Andy and over his shoulders 3 figures casting shimmering silver patronuses towards the ceiling that he couldn't fail but recognise as his father, godfather and professor. At this realisation his mind went foggy and he felt his legs begin to give way beneath him despite his iron grip on the bars of his cage.

Andy, seeing the look of relief pass over Harry's dirty and bloodied face, reached across to grab his brother under the arms as his legs gave out and he started to fall. 'Ron give me a hand, we've got to get him out of here.'

Ron was already lunging forward and he grabbed Harry's free arm at the shoulder, keeping him standing. He began to feel a warm wetness spread across his chest where Harry's arm hung, followed quickly by a wave of ice cold realisation as to what the substance was. To confirm what he already knew to be true, Ron looked down at his own reddening chest to see Harry's left wrist engulfed in an iron handcuff that was chained to the cage. The tightness and sharpness of the bracelet had dug into Harry's wrist and become seemingly integral to the structure of it. Dried blood crusted the edge of the wound but this was beginning to darken under a new coat of blood which they had freed when moving Harry. Ron turned to Andy with a horrified look on his face to find Andy staring back with a mirror image of emotions. He had discovered the same thing on Harry's right wrist.

The two men shared a look of helplessness at this new development and turned together and called out.

'James!'

'Dad!'

James whipped around at the cry of absolute fear that he never thought he would hear from his son's best friend, let alone his own eldest son.

'Sirius, you hold off these guys,' gesturing wildly in the direction of the ceiling and the encircling dementors. 'Remy come with me.'

Remus and James sprinted into the centre of the room to be met by a sight that no father should ever have to witness. By now Harry's legs had entirely given out and as a result he was now lying partially on the floor and partially on Ron, who was sat supporting Harry from behind with a look of sheer horror plastered across his face. Next to him knelt Andy calling out Harry's name while gently shaking his shoulders, his voice betraying the panic he was managing to keep from his face. Between the two of them lay Harry. His face was covered in dirt so thick that it would have been impossible to make out Harry's unique scar if it hadn't been swollen red with a line of blood leaking from the end. His glasses and clothes were scratched, ripped and hung twisted on his impossibly thin frame. How had his little boy ended up in this situation and what had they done to him?

He was pulled out of his reverie by Andy's panicked voice.

'We can't get him out Dad. These handcuffs won't open to any magic we can think of.' After discovering the handcuffs, Andy had proceeded to wrack his brains for every unlocking charm his auror training had taught him, for none of them to work.

James carefully lifted Harry's left wrist to examine the torturous bracelet. He was dismayed to discover how light Harry's arm felt and how his hand hung limply, causing the rusted metal to cut into his flesh further. James was unsure whether he was more worried about the deep wound or the fact that Harry barely flinched at the deepening of the cut. He turned it over in his hands and saw a small key hole lighting a spark of an idea in his mind.

'Remy, you gotta pick the lock.'

Remus glanced at James before reaching into the inside pocket of his robes and pulling out his tools that he always carried on his person.

'Where on earth did you learn to do that?' Andy asked as Remus began to fiddle in the lock that James was holding.

'Being a werewolf means you sometimes find yourself in unexpected situations nak... without clothes, like people's back gardens,' he replied with a slight reddish hint of a blush creeping onto his face.

'Yeah, you have no idea how difficult it is getting back into Hogwarts when completely naked,' added James, increasing the blush falling across Remus' pale and scarred face.

'Ok, I got it,' said Remus, followed by a soft click as the lock opened. To the horror of the 4 men though, the handcuff stayed attached to Harry's wrist, embedded into his flesh.

James' stomach turned but he forced himself back into the situation when Harry murmured a single word.

'Dad.'

James eyes filled with tears. 'I'm here Harry, don't worry. We're going to get you out.'

He turned to Remus and, gesturing to Harry's other wrist, said, 'Get the other one.'

James turned his eyes back to his youngest son. 'Ok Harry, I'm really sorry but this is going to hurt. But once it's over we can go and it will all be over.'

Harry gave a shaking nod of acknowledgement and James turned to Ron and Andy.

'Ron, hold his shoulders and Andy try to keep him awake.' Both men mirrored Harry's shaky nod. By now Remus had unlocked Harry's other wrist and was holding it in a similar fashion to James.

'James, we'll do both at the same time. We don't want to put him through this twice,' Remus said, any hints of pink disappearing from his face as he cottoned on to James' plan.

James nodded in agreement and the two men looked at each other.

'Right, on three then,' James said taking a deep breath. 'One, two, three!'


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Harry's scream echoed around the dark cavernous room as Remus and James ripped his manacles off. Ron gripped Harry's shoulders with all his might as his body convulsed with the abuse, in a vain attempt to provide some comfort for his tortured best friend.

Andy watched as his baby brother writhed in agony. He hadn't looked so young in years and yet so old at the same time as if the horrors of the past few months had aged him in a way no one could ever understand. His cries died away to be replaced with weak sobs and soon Harry's eyes began to roll back.

'No Harry, come on, keep your eyes open,' Andy said with one hand on either side of his face. 'You gotta stay awake. Just a little bit longer.' Tears began to track down Andy's face as Harry wrenched his eyes open, although he was barely focusing on Andy's face a mere foot from his, let alone what was going on around him.

He turned as Remus drew all of their attention to the blood encrusted shackle he had just removed. 'Look at this.'

'I don't think now is the time for a lesson on dark objects, professor,' said Sirius who had edged over to the group while keeping his silvery dog patronus floating through the air.

'No Sirius, that's a charm conductor,' Ron said to general surprise but delight of his professor, Remus.

'So? I still hardly think now is the time.'

'How did you become an auror?' said James shaking his head at Sirius' ignorance. 'A charm conductor is a dark object that uses a person's magic to sustain a charm. This way the charm remains active as long as the wizard is alive and connected to it. But draining someone's magic is extremely painful. It's like someone trying to remove your blood, but always leaving enough to keep you alive.' At this thought he swallowed hard, once again glancing at his broken son.

Remus eyes lit at the conclusion he had reached before the others. 'I would bet a werewolf cure that they are using him to power the anti-apparation charm.'

'That means that now we should be able to apparate out of here,' James concluded, understanding the spark he saw in his best friend's eyes.

Remus nodded and as this began to sink in the 5 men began to grin.

'Ok Ron and Andy will hold up Harry and then we will do a group apparition so we don't get separated,' said James. He placed a hand on the shoulder of his eldest and Andy turned to see the haunted face of his father staring back at him.

'Let's get him home,' said James.

Andy helped Ron pull Harry to his feet, resuming their original positions at each shoulder. Harry let out a quiet whimper and the 3 marauders crowded around the younger generation wizards, each placing a hand on Harry's battered body.

They all turned to James as he said, 'Three, two, one...'

Everything spun around them and Andy gripped onto Harry's arm for dear life. He had already lost his little brother once and there was no way he was going to let it happen again.

Harry POV

Harry couldn't help but be impressed at the ingenuity of the death eaters in this new method of torture. He wondered absentmindedly if it was a potion or a hallucinating charm that had him seeing his family and apparently being rescued by them. Suddenly everything slipped into place as he realised what was happening with a groan. He had fallen asleep. This was all the work of the nightmare charm they had placed on him. That would explain why they had removed his handcuffs; it was just another way of causing him pain. Harry's entire body shifted in horror as he felt himself being squeezed in the familiar sensation of apparition. He knew where this dream was going and he didn't think he could stand it. The death eaters had finally discovered his breaking point. They were going to have his family and friends disown and beat him for being a useless friend, brother and son. In all the imaginative methods of torture and emotional abuse he knew that this would be the most painful of all and he had to get away.

As the world resolved itself around him once more he looked around at his surroundings and recognised the familiar room that was the lounge of his home. Were they this cruel? They weren't just going to have his own family torture him but first lull him into a false sense of security in his home.

His eyes focused on the dozen faces that turned to face him and his heart sank further. Not only his 'rescuers' stood there but also his Mum, J, Hermione, Matt, Kat, Tonks, Fred and George, Mr and Mrs Weasley and of course Ginny. There unspoken hatred towards him turned his heart to stone.

As his 'Mum' and 'Ginny' leapt from their waiting positions on the two sofas Harry broke free of the vice like grip of 'Ron' and 'Andy'. They turned to look at him with impatience and irritation that he was trying to escape his fate.

He turned his back on the room and milking the final shreds of adrenaline from his system, dragged himself across to the corner of the room. It was as far from his advancing tormentors as he could get as they cleverly stood between him and the door effectively blocking any chance of escape.

'No, go away! I'm sorry, anything but this. Anything but this!' he cried at anyone he hoped would listen and take pity.

But realising that his only hope lay in the impossibility of pity from death eaters he curled himself into a ball in a fashion of protection and threw himself as far into the corner as he could get.

As he threw his head back he heard a loud crack before he felt a blinding pain that plunged him into blackness as their hands began to grab him. His final thought, was an idle concern about what would happen to the charm if he became unconscious during a nightmare.

And then everything went black.

Andy:

Gripping Harry tightly, Andy expelled a breath he barely realised he had been holding as the comforting sight of the lounge of Potter Manor materialised before him including many familiar faces. Fred and George were sat on the arms of a large armchair that had a pale faced Hermione curled up into it. They were talking softly to each other, each holding one of Hermione's hands in theirs. Mr and Mrs Weasley were talking with Tonks in the doorway to the room, a large try of steaming cups of tea in Mrs Weasley's hands. On one of the sofas sat a tear streaked J with his hand in Matt's and Ginny curled up between the pair of them, her head resting on J's lap as she stared at the other sofa facing her. This held the eyes that Andy desperately sought as Kat's haunted face turned to where he stood, his mother weeping in her arms.

At the familiar pop of disapparation, every head in the room turned to them and froze in a mixture of shock, surprise and relief when they identified the extra member of the group.

'Harry!'

The cry escaped Ginny's lips as she leapt off the sofa in the same moment as Lily left hers, reaching for her son. Ginny's declaration broke everyone's shock and people all began to sigh in relief, grins crept back onto the faces of Fred and George and they all moved forward to welcome Harry back into his home and his family.

Andy turned to look at Harry as he felt Harry's arm leave his tight grip and saw Harry fling himself away from his advancing family. Harry began to edge into the corner of the room a look of pure fear and desperation settled on his bloodied face that drove a spike into Andy's heart at the site of it. He wanted to wrap his baby brother up in his arms like he and J used to do whenever Harry had had nightmares when he was little and tell him there were no monsters to hurt him. The irony of this statement wasn't lost on him as he let out a cold smirk to himself. The look wasn't missed by his brother who stood at his side. He understood the meaning behind it exactly and Andy knew he felt the exact same way.

'No, go away! I'm sorry, anything but this. Anything but this!' Harry cried, curling impossibly smaller into the wall.

'Harry no one's going to hurt you,' Andy said in the soft voice he reserved for calming Harry after a nightmare.

'It's alright Harry, you're home,' echoed J as the two reached to engulf Harry in a hug.

Harry flinched away from their hands with such force that his head smacked into the wall with a sickening crack. His eyes seemed to contemplate this new development for a moment before rolling back into his head as his body went limp.

'Harry!' screamed Ginny as she reached him, but he remained limp and lifeless against the wall. The only sign of life on his blackened and bloody face was his brow, which was furrowed in pain.

'J, come on,' Andy said and the 2 men hooked one of their baby brother's arms over their shoulders, hauling him to his feet. They shared a look as they realised with horror just how light Harry was and how fragile he felt in their arms.

'Take him to his room, boys,' Lily ordered them as she felt his forehead with the back of her hand, only to remove it quickly as it became bloodied from his scar.

They easily dragged Harry from the room with J calling over his shoulder, 'Matt bring yours and mine bags.'

James and Lily shadowed the trio of brothers and Remus and Sirius grabbed Harry's legs to help gently lift him into bed, once they were in Harry's room. Despite their delicacy, Harry still let out a pained groan as they laid him down.

'Shouldn't we get him straight to St Mungo's?' asked Fred to no one in particular. He, George and Ron, with Hermione in his arms, were standing in the doorway having followed the procession to Harry's room.

'He has a point Dad,' said J, looking from his battered brother to his father.

'We can't,' James replied. 'The publicity would be huge and he wouldn't be safe no matter how many aurors I post there. You have to do this J.'

J visibly paled, 'But Dad, I don't kno...'

'You do know what to do. You were top in your class and are the youngest healer in 200 years to be head of a department. You and Matt can do this.'

J's eyed grew wide and he stared at Harry's seemingly lifeless body. Matt placed a hand on his and whispered, 'You can do this J.'

'Save your brother,' said Lily with the confidence only a mother can have in a son.

J looked her in the eyes and took a deep breath centring him in healer mode. 'Ok, Matt I need Blood Replenishing, Clotting and Nutrition potions. We've got to get the bleeding to stop.'

Matt nodded jumping into action, 'I'll deal with those while you do an assessment.'

Andy took the chance to look around the room. Fred, George, Hermione, Ron and Lupin had all left and had joined the others downstairs from the muffled voices that he could hear. In the chair by Harry's desk sat Lily holding onto James' arms that were around her. They both appeared to be holding each other together and Andy was immediately transported back to a time when he was 12 and Harry was just born and his parents were told of the prophecy. It was only 4 months later when they were attacked in their home and Harry got his scar. That night had left Lily in the hospital with a concussion, J a broken arm and Harry his scar.

But this time it was just Harry.

Strong arms enveloped him from behind as Kat held onto him, and he threw an arm over her shoulders.

'They make a good team don't they?' she said quietly, aiming her comment at his brother and partner.

Andy looked at his brother, bustling around Harry's bed, and how he and Matt moved in perfect synchronisation. Each seemed to know exactly where the other was going and they barely exchanged instructions to each other as they began to examine Harry's tiny body.

'They really do,' agreed Andy, giving his fiancé a squeeze as much to comfort himself as her.

'Ok, here we go,' said J as they prepared to remove Harry's clothing. The whole family held a silent breath as they realised this was the moment they would discover what had happened to Harry.

J and Matt used severing charms to cut away his shirt and they peeled it off his blood and sweat soaked skin.

'Oh, my baby!' cried Lily, turning into her husband's embrace and beginning to weep into his shoulder.

Harry's torso was covered in deep gashes obviously from a whip, blistering burns and huge black/purple bruises. It looked terrible but Andy couldn't help feeling glad that at least there was no fresh blood here, no life threatening open wounds. His father and Kat seemed to have had the same thought as they both visibly relaxed in relief. There relaxed postures didn't last long though.

'Shit!'


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The word had come from J and exchanging a panicked look with Matt, he began pressing his hands across the bruises on Harry's torso.

'What? What's going on? He hasn't got any open wounds so what's the problem?' James said, voicing Andy's thoughts.

'That's the problem...' J began, but stopped as tears filled his eyes.

Matt reached across the bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. 'The problem is that bruises are caused by bleeding. If it was an open wound we would be able to see the artery and seal it, stopping the bleeding. However, these bruises have been caused by internal bleeding, which means we can't see where the problem is and if we cut him open he will probably bleed out.'

He turned back to J and said confidently, 'Come on J, you can do this. I only know how to do it on children, an adult's anatomy is too different and I might do more damage.'

'I know,' J said in a small voice. 'Give me a minute.' He turned away and faced out of the window behind the bed visibly calming himself.

Matt met our confused expressions and took pity in explaining. 'There is a spell we use for internal bleeding, but it is difficult and exhausting. I can't do it because I only know how to do it on kids and the last person J did it on...' he trailed off looking at J's back.

James looked between the two of them, 'the last person? What happened?'

'He died,' said J in an empty voice way beyond his years.

Matt walked around the bed and put a hand on either side of J's face. 'Look at me,' he said.

J's eyes rose from the floor and locked onto Matt's.

'You can do this. You have done it 50 times before successfully when others would have failed. Last time it went wrong, I know, but he had multiple organ failure and you know that and what with his cancer there was no way he would have survived. You can do this!'

A single tear tracked its way down my brother's face as he took a deep shaky breath and nodded. 'Ok. Andy I'm going to need your help.'

With a new found respect for his brother, Andy walked around to his side, past a crying and scared looking Lily.

J looked him in the eye and said, 'Ok, I need your help. This spell takes a hell of a lot of magic, more than one person. Matt can't help because he needs to keep monitoring Harry while I do this.'

Without hesitation he replied, 'What do you need me to do?'

A smile crept across J's face. 'I need you to stand by me and be ready to share your magic with me if I need it.'

'No problem, I'll be here.'

J smiled properly and placed his wand tip on Harry's chest.

'The 3 of us against the world. Just like old times,' Andy said as J took a deep steadying breath.

'_Sanguimen Consano.'_

Harry began to whimper and wriggle beneath J's wand as he traced patterns across it.

'James,' Matt called. 'You need to come and hold him still or J will never find the problem.'

James leapt across the room and gently but firmly pressed Harry's shoulders into the mattress.

'Shit,' said J.

'What is it? What can you see?' James asked.

A pained look crossed J's face. 'There's so much blood. I can't see where it is coming from...' he suddenly went quiet. 'Wait, I think I found it. He's perforated the aorta, that's why it's bleeding so much. Andy I need...' he trailed off as his breathing became laboured but his free hand grasped thin air.

Andy grabbed J's in both of his, 'I'm right here. Take what you need.'

J became calmer and scrunched his eyes in concentration. A few moments later he opened his eyes with a smile growing on his lips, 'I got it. He's going to be fine.'

We all shared a look and the relief began to set in. James released Harry's shoulders and the 3 oldest Potter men were pulled into a hug by the Potter matriarch, much to the amusement of them.

'No worries Mum, the little squirt doesn't get away that easily,' Andy said with a chuckle of relief as they held Lily tight between them all.

HarryPOV

The world swam back into reality as the pressure on his chest was released. He felt so light that he might float away. However with lucidity came pain. Every part of him ached with such ferocity that he considered forcing himself back into unconsciousness just to escape it.

Suddenly a tightness and the unmistakable feel of a hand on his wrist had his eyes flung open. He took in his surroundings in a matter of seconds as his exhausted flee or fight reflex kicked for the hundredth time in the last few months.

He was still in the nightmare.

Fear gripped his heart as he realised he was still in the nightmare because he could distinctly see the maroon walls of his room and the familiar faces of his 'family'. Harry should have realised that the death eaters wouldn't let him out of this dream so easily. They must have sensed that this was the one that was going to break him. And they were right.

He pulled his arm out of someone's grasp and flung himself out of his bed and onto the floor taking the bedside lamp with him. Despite the screaming of his muscles he scrambled to pick up the broken shards of glass, ignoring them slicing into his palms. He soon became aware of his advancing 'family' and cried out in desperation, 'I'm sorry, please, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, just don't make me watch this, please. Not them, anyone but them!'

He knew it was useless and he crawled back into a corner again taking a deep breath. It was so difficult to breath, all of a sudden. No matter how much he breathed in he just couldn't satiate the burn in his lungs. His vision began to blur as his lungs screamed in agony.

He flinched away from the hands that reached him but it was useless. He could feel himself falling into the blackness again.

J POV

As they broke away from their family hug, he noticed Ginny who was sat alone on the window seat. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and was staring at Harry's limp form in the bed. She hadn't shed a tear yet and J found such respect in her bravery. It was so typically Ginny to suffer alone and in silence. J turned back to see Matt beginning to dress the wounds on Harry's wrists with such care you would've imagined it was his own flesh and blood lying there. It was at this moment that Harry's eyes flew open and he launched himself off the bed and into the bedside table, shattering the lamp that sat there on the floor.

The family turned around in surprise to see Harry awake and scrambling around with the broken glass.

'Harry,' Lily cries in relief.

'Harry, stop it, you don't need to do that,' James said softly to Harry as he saw his sons shredded hands. 'Harry, stop. You're hurting yourself.' He reached a hand forward but Harry backed away into the corner just as he had done in the lounge an hour earlier.

'I'm sorry, please, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, just don't make me watch this, please. Not them, anyone but them!' Harry cried out in so much pain that J's heart turned to ice.

'What's going on?' Andy asked. 'Why is he saying that?'

Realisation dawned on J, 'He thinks he's hallucinating. He doesn't believe we're real, just a dream... or a nightmare.' He glanced back down at Harry who was now curled into the foetal position once more, sobs wracking his body.

'J,' came Matt's warning voice as they both saw Harry's lips turn blue.

'I know. Shit,' J replied looking at him helplessly.

'What's wrong?' his older brother demanded.

'He's having a panic attack. He's breathing too fast because of stress and so he's not getting enough oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. Therefore he thinks he needs to breath more so he ends up with too much oxygen in his system and in a moment he's going to pass out.' He reached toward Harry and stroked his hair like he always did when Harry was little.

Harry flinched away from his touch and further into a ball.

'What can we do?' Andy asked watching Harry flinch away from them.

Matt and J exchanged a glance and it was Matt that answered, 'We don't know. We've got to calm him down or he's just going to pass out but if he won't let anyone touch him I don't see what we can do?' There were tears in his eyes as his words seemed to dawn on himself and make him incredibly aware of how little they could help.

'Where's Ginny?' James suddenly asked to the room at large.

He was met by blank and confused faces as the family realised they had no idea.

J turned to the window saying, 'She's over there.'

The family jumped slightly at the sight of the hunched figure in the window as none of them had even realised she was in the room. It dawned on J, that while they had all been seeking comfort in their other half's arms Ginny had been staring at the broken shell of her other half.

'Ginny come here,' James said and Ginny immediately moved to Harry's side. 'If anyone can get through to him it will be Gin.'

She stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Harry's chest. She whispered, 'Harry.'

Harry's eyes opened at her words and instead of flinching away, he appeared to relax ever so slightly.

'Harry,' Ginny whispered again. 'You don't have to be afraid anymore. I won't let anyone hurt you ever again.'

Harry blinked at her for a few seconds and then barely audibly muttered, 'Gin?'

'Yes Harry, it's me. Come here,' opening her arms for him.

He, without hesitation, shifted his position into her arms with a heavy groan of pain. 'Gin, I'm sorry.'

'You don't have to be sorry Harry,' she whispered into his ear and the change in his posture was instantaneous. His entire body relaxed and he began to gently weep into Ginny's shoulder as she held him as close as possible.

The rest of the Potters looked on the scene with amazement as their strongest and youngest Potter broke down in the arms of his love. Each member could count on one hand the number of time they had seen Harry cry and it brought fresh tears to every eye in the room as they imagined the horrors that he had suffered to bring about this reaction from him.

Ginny held Harry as he cried himself into sleep. She looked up from the broken man in her arms to his family over his shoulder. They could all see the tears running down her cheeks as she looked at them completely lost. J finally understood that as the others had only cried in the arms of their loves, she too had saved her tears for the man she loved.

**Thanks to everyone who has read this story, I was astonished at the number of views it got especially the person in Ecuador! Please review if you can, even if it's just a smiley face. I've just started Uni so updates may be a bit slower but percivear with me! (Sorry I haven't the foggiest idea how you spell percivere? :D )**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A week had passed since the haunting night when they had brought Harry home. J and Matt had worked on him continuously and kept him dosed up on dreamless sleep potion as he healed. The occupants of the room had varied greatly over the week but the constant was always Ginny. She sat, slept and ate in the window seat of Harry's room, always keeping an eye on his chest to make sure it kept rising and falling.

It was Sunday morning and the residents and visitors of Potter Manor were tucking into their traditional brunch. Mrs Weasley, Lily and Tonks had done the cooking and they now sat around the table with James, Sirius, Remus, Matt, Kat, Hermione, Ron, Mr Weasley and the twins. The only people missing were Harry and Ginny, J, who was checking Harry over one last time, and Andy, who had been sent to convince Ginny to come and eat something.

It was at Hermione's great intake of breath that the 2 families looked toward the doorway to the dining room to see Harry standing arm in arm with Ginny. J and Andy followed closely behind with huge grins plastered on their faces and took up seats next to their partners.

'Harry!' came the unanimous chorus from the room.

'Harry. Are you sure you should be up?' Lily said concernedly, giving her son a gentle hug.

Harry gave a small chuckle and replied, 'Well, Doc gave me the all clear and I feel as good as new.' He followed this with an almost convincing smile. It didn't reach his eyes like normal though and this didn't go unnoticed.

All eyes turned to J. 'Well he is fine,' J retorted with both hands raised.

This was met with small laughs from around the room and as Harry took a seat between his Mother and Ginny, normality began to resume to the traditional event. Everyone began helping themselves to food, with Mrs Weasley piling about a third of the table's contents onto Harry's plate.

'Mrs Weasley, I'm fine. I can manage, don't worry,' said Harry with growing alarm as the small continent of food in front of him kept growing.

'Hey no fair Harry,' complained Sirius from the other end of the table, holding up an empty dish. 'You've got all the eggs!'

Fred and George burst out laughing and tried to smother it behind there napkins at a glare from their mother. James and Remus were desperately trying to not spray food everywhere as they attempted to hide their laughs from Molly as well.

'I haven't got any eggs,' Harry said with a confused look at his apparently eggless plate.

'That's because they're hidden underneath that half a pig of bacon that vaguely resembles a small mountain which you are also selfishly hoarding,' said Andy with a laugh as Kat whacked him around the back of the head with her napkin while trying to hide her own laughter at the ridiculousness of it all.

'Ah, I see,' said Harry and he carefully scraped the small geographical feature of bacon onto Ginny's plate revealing at least 8 scrambled eggs.

'Harry! I don't want all of this,' Ginny moaned with a small smile at the edge of her mouth.

'No worries, 2 secs Gin,' Harry said giving her a peck on the check and standing up. He took his plate and Ginny's and upended his of eggs onto Sirius' plate and Ginny's of bacon on to Andy's.

He then put 2 pieces of bacon and a small spoonful of eggs on to each of their plates and sat down. 'There we go love,' giving Ginny back her plate.

'What would I do without you?' Ginny giggled giving Harry a kiss on the mouth, to many groans from her brothers.

'Probably get cholesterol poisoning,' said J and the whole table erupted into laughter.

Later in the evening the Potters were sat in the lounge. All of the Weasleys had flooed home after a delicious dinner of lamb stew and treacle tart, except for Ginny who chose to stay at Potter Manor much to Harry's delight. They were sat in pairs all facing the golden fire that burned away in the fireplace. James looked at his 3 children and unconsciously gave his wife a loving squeeze. Andy was sat stroking Kat's feet as she laid across him on the sofa, J and Matt were sat in two chairs pushed together with hands clasped together and J's head on Matt's shoulder and Harry with Ginny in his lap sat gently tracing patterns up her back. They were all so happy that James couldn't believe how lucky he was that they had all got here.

It was J that broke the comfortable silence that had settled over the 4 couples. 'Harry, I think you should know that I can't give you anymore dreamless sleep potion.'

A pained look crossed Harry's face for less than a second as he regained control of his features. 'Ok, no worries J.'

'How come?' said James worryingly. They were all beginning to realise the severity of what J had said although Harry was hiding any fear from showing on his face. He had been on that potion since he had returned home and they knew that the minute he was taken of it, he was probably going to suffer some traumatic dreams of his experiences.

J looked over at Harry who was staring into the flames, his hand now gripping Ginny's hand rather than stroking her back. 'We had to give him so much last week so that he would sleep whilst we healed him, which was a hell of a lot you stubborn squirt,' he said bringing laughter from Andy, Kat and Matt. 'That you've kind of developed immunity to it. It wouldn't have any effect on you no matter how much I gave you now.'

'Well in that case I think it's a good idea to get an early night,' said Lily looking at the time which already read 10.30. 'Come on you lot, off to bed.'

'Yes Mum,' the three boys responded in unison pulling up their other halves.

'Night Mum,' said Andy as he took Kat by the hand and wandered up the stairs closely followed by J and Matt in a similar fashion.

'Night Mum,' said Harry. Lily responded by drawing him into a tight hug and James threw an arm around the 2 of them.

Pulling away Lily turned to Ginny, 'I've made up yours and Hermione's normal room.'

'Thanks a lot Mrs Potter,' Ginny said with a small smile.

'How many times must I ask you to call me Lily?' Lily asked grinning at the pair.

'Sorry, Lily,' Ginny answered turning a deep red.

The two made their way up the stairs and down the corridor. The door to their rooms stood opposite each other and it was here that they parted ways with a deep kiss that left them both with electricity shooting down their limbs at the passion.

'Night Gin,' Harry said softly.

'Goodnight Harry,' she replied with a grin and turned into her room, closing the door to him with a soft click.

**Thanks to the hundreds of people reading it means so much that people are following this story but i've only got 12 reviews... pretty please leave a little review**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

At 3.18am 7 pairs of eyes flew open in perfect unison. Ginny blearily looked around her room in confusion, she had no idea what had caused her to wake. That was until she heard another muffled scream from across the hall. Her heart leapt into her throat as understanding dawned on her as to the source of that noise and she leapt out of bed and flung open the door to her room. Andy's room was the closest at the far end of the corridor and Ginny saw him and Kat run into the corridor as she entered Harry's room.

It was dark in the room except for the light streaming in from the hallway and Ginny sent a silent spell out to light the 2 bedside lamps as the rest of the household piled into Harry's room and another hallowing scream echoed out of room.

Harry was writhing in his bed and moaning in pain. His legs and arms fought out against the sheets that were tangled around him and his face was screwed up in pain.

Lily and James rushed over to his side and tried to grab hold of his flailing limbs while calling to him to wake up.

'No please. Let me go,' cried Harry as he fought against the bed sheets, his parents grasping hands and his own unconsciousness.

'Lily, James, you gotta let go,' Ginny cried as Harry let out a scream of agony.

'What are you on about? We gotta wake him up,' James replied now with one of Harry's wrists in his own hand.

'No Dad, she's right,' J answered with desperation to many confused faces about the room. He took a steadying breath and explained. 'Harry's reliving what happened to him and there's nothing we can do about it. I can't give him any potions and he's just going to keep reliving everything they did to him.' The last bit came out as a choked cry and Matt placed an arm around him.

Matt continued as J sobbed into his shoulder. 'He must be reliving being held down while he was tortured.' He swallowed hard as he began to imagine the horrors his almost brother had suffered. 'If you hold him down he's just going to panic more, we've got to find a way of waking him up.'

As if to confirm what Matt said, Harry let out another agonising scream to which his parents released his arms with shock.

It was at this moment when Ginny had an epiphany as to how to save Harry from himself. She walked towards his bed slowly.

Andy put a hand on Ginny's shoulder, 'Gin, what are you doing?'

Ginny faced him and J and explained with an empty face, 'What did you do when he was little when he had nightmares?'

J and Andy shared a confused look and then J said, 'I used to stroke his hair to calm him down and Andy would hold his shoulders. Why?'

'Do it now,' Ginny ordered as she moved closer to Harry's bed and gently placed a hand on his sweat soaked chest without checking if the two brothers were following her.

'Gin, what are you doing?' Kat said quietly as she watched the 3 of them lay hands on Harry's writhing form.

'Giving him what he needs,' she whispered almost just to herself. 'He needs some way of remembering that he isn't really in that horrible place anymore. He needs to feel something that he only associates with comfort and safety.'

With that she turned back to Harry who had grown quieter and stiller under their calming actions. 'Come on Harry,' she whispered lovingly into his ear. 'You know it's not real. You can fight it, come on.'

Suddenly Harry's eyes flew open and he shot upright in his bed effectively head butting an unuspecting J.

'Bloody hell!' J cried, falling backwards away from the bed and into the arms of an even more surprised Kat.

'J, you ok?' she said as he grasped his head with both hands.

Matt seeing J in Kat's arms, said with a smirk to Kat, 'Hey! That's my job!' To which Kat let out a gentle laugh and set J back on his feet.

Harry was breathing heavily as he stared wearily around the room looking for possible danger. He vaguely became aware of a familiar hand on his chest and another familiar and welcomed grasp on his hand. He turned and confirmed his beliefs as he saw Ginny held her hand against his chest while Lily held his hand in both of hers.

'Harry, it's all alright,' James said about a foot from Harry's face, looking him directly in the eye and seeing too many years of worry and pain staring back at him.

Harry seemed to contemplate these words for a moment, deciding whether to believe them or not. James saw a tear escape his right eye as his breathing began to slow and his body visibly sag from the release of tension.

'I'm sorry,' he muttered as he leant back against the headboard and stared at his lap with shame.

Lily released his hand and with more sincerity than could be possible if she wasn't a mother, placed a hand on either side of his face and said, 'You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for Harry. I'm sorry that you have to go through this but I can promise you it will get better.'

Harry looked back at her and gave her a slight nod feeling more like her little boy than her grown up son and at that moment in time not minding in the slightest.

Then as quickly as his eyes had opened, Harry flung them wider in shock and horror as he realised what this nightmare meant.

'Oh no,' he cried, desperation thick in his voice. 'Please no. I can't take any more please. Make it go away.' He gripped onto his Mother's arm as Ginny stroked his back gently.

'What is it Harry?' Lily asked holding him close.

'It's the charm, it's still active,' he said as he began to shake in fear.

'What charm Harry?' James asked his trembling son with concern thick in his voice.

Harry took a huge breath and looked directly at his father as he explained, 'When I was... there, they cast a charm on me. They called it... called it a nightmare charm.'

J inhaled sharply, 'Harry I'm so sorry.'

Harry just looked back at him with grateful eyes, that he now wouldn't be the one that had to explain it.

'J what is it?' Lily asked her middle son, but it was James who answered her.

'They were all the rage last time Voldemort was on the rise. It's... the final method of torture.'

Tears slipped down Lily's face as she held Harry's trembling form closer, James continued, 'They are cast on prisoners so that whenever they slip into unconsciousness they experience their worst nightmare.'

'So like a boggart?' Kat interjected looking worryingly at Harry who she thought of as her own brother after all these years.

'Worse,' James said in a flat voice, barely showing the anger that was rising in him. 'A boggart just makes you view your worst fear, you're still aware of where you are. But a nightmare charm puts you in the situation you dread most. You hear, see, smell and feel everything as if it were real. Death eaters started using them when their prisoners lapsed into unconsciousness. They got fed up of waiting for them to wake up so devised this way of torturing them with what was closest to their heart in the one place they thought they could escape to. It leaves you with nothing, no freedom. Not even in your own dreams.'

They all stared at Harry, shaking like a leaf in fear of his own subconscious.

J sat on the edge of the bed and looked at his brother, 'Harry. We've known about this charm for a while and although it is horrible we can get rid of it quickly and easily.' As he said this Matt handed him a glass of a pale purple potion, which he had just measured out. 'All you have to do is take this. I promise it won't hurt.'

The sincerity in his brother's eyes had Harry reaching out for the glass almost instantly. At this point, he was willing to do anything to stop the charm so little convincing was necessary.

The effect was instantaneous. Once he swallowed the last drop of the potion his body slumped back onto Lily who was still tightly holding him, and his eyes closed.

'That's what's meant to happen,' J explained seeing the panicked looks on his parents' faces. 'He's been under that bloody charm for so long that his body is physically exhausted. I wouldn't be surprised if he slept for more than a day.'

And sure enough Harry's once pained face was now relaxed and reflecting the calmness of un-interfered dreams. As if to confirm J's prediction, Harry began to softly snore bringing all the occupants of the room to muffled laughter.

Lily pulled the covers up around him and stroked his head gently as if she could catch his unruly hair off guard. 'Right, come on you lot. Off to bed.'

They all tip-toed out of the room and back to their own rooms. Once the room was empty Lily turned around to see Ginny curled up in the armchair by Harry's bed, her eyes locked on his softly rising and falling chest and her hand locked around his. A small smile came to her lips as she found herself looking at a mirror image of herself and her husband around 30 years ago when he suffered Dragon Pox, she hadn't left his side each night.

'Goodnight Ginny,' she whispered and walked back to her bed and her man.

**Sorry it's been a bit longer but you were warned, Uni is crazy and it's only week 1 but I'll hopefully fit in some time to keep writing if you still want me too. Please review and let me know what you think... is it too cheesy?**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

How long had it been? Harry couldn't remember. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept for so long and not re-entered consciousness screaming either. His eyes flickered open and he caught a glimpse of a gentle stream of golden sunlight entering through the open window. For a moment Harry found himself mesmerised by the comforting sounds of his home; the rustle of the large oak tree just outside his window, the soft hum of the oven in the kitchen below him and the barely audible but unmistakable singing of Ginny. He basked in the seemingly inconsequential sounds that he valued so much as he stared at the dancing specks of dust in the beam of sunlight.

Snapping out of his reverie, Harry's eyes followed the trail of glittering light to the chair by his bed where he identified Ginny's curled up figure. She was holding a book open on her lap with one hand, the other combing through her coppery hair as she read, her mouth slightly open with concentration allowing her gentle humming to float around the room. With the sunlight falling behind her, Harry couldn't help but think of how her hair looked like a fiery halo around her beautiful features. He wanted with everything he possessed to have his hand running through her glowing hair, his lips shaping themselves to hers.

'Morning.'

Harry once again jumped back into reality as he met Ginny's eyes, a small smile forming at the corner of her mouth. 'It's rude to stare you know,' she said lovingly.

'But I've missed so many staring opportunities over the past few months, I've got to make up for it,' Harry retorted pulling himself into a sitting position against his pillows. 'Can't have you doubting your ability to make me drool.'

This time, a genuine smile stretched across her face. 'Indeed not, my Harry,' she said seductively, standing up from her chair and walking to his bedside before lying down next to him. 'But I think we need to check that I've still got it.' As she said this she lightly brushed her hand over his chest and traced the ruby lines of her lips with her tongue.

'Oh Gin,' was all Harry got out before his desire became too much. His own tongue replaced hers as he gently tasted her lips before claiming it in a searing kiss. They filled this kiss with all the worry and fear they had held onto for so long. Harry's hand finally found its goal and he ran his fingers through her fiery hair while his other caressed her back pulling her closer to his chest. The kiss broke as the need for air became too great but Harry only transferred his lips to her neck. He twisted holding himself above Ginny as he trailed his lips down her freckled neck to her shoulder. Ginny moaned in pleasure at the gentle caress as she knotted one hand into his t-shirt and used the other to bring his lips back to hers.

'Ginny, Mum says... shit! Sorry!'

At Andy's exclamation Ginny and Harry flung apart looking rather flustered and flushed.

Andy looked at the pair, straightening their clothes, in amusement. 'Sorry little bro, didn't realise you were awake, let alone so... energised,' he said trying to stifle a laugh.

Harry reached behind his head and flung a pillow with expert precision at Andy's scoffing face.

'No worries Harry,' Andy said looking at Harry's reddening face. 'That's nothing compared to what J walked in on me and Kat doing. It was about 2 years ago and...'

He was stopped short from elaborating by Harry and Ginny's loud protests.

'Too much info, brother,' Harry said with a shudder.

'Well, Mum says breakfasts up so I'll let her know you'll be joining us at last,' Andy relayed looking at Harry.

He walked towards the open door before turning on his heel. 'You know Gin, I would have suggested blackmailing him awake if I'd known you were willing to go that far,' he said as he disappeared down the corridor narrowly missing the large book Ginny had thrown at him, which landed against the floor with a heavy thud.

'Come on then,' Harry said, holding out his hand to Ginny and leading her to the door. 'I feel like I could eat a whole pig and at least 8 eggs!'

The pair walked into the dining room just as Andy sat down between Kat and Sirius with a broad grin on his face. He leaned over and casually muttered something to Sirius who also broke out into a mischievous smile before addressing Ginny and Harry with mock sincerity.

'Harry, glad to see you awake. Hope you didn't mind only waking up with Ginny there.'

Harry and Ginny glared at him and Andy who was snickering quietly, much to the confusion of Kat.

They had just taken their seats when Lily entered with a plate of sausages. 'Harry, it's so good to see you up,' she said giving him a kiss on the top of his head. 'How are you feeling?'

'Just great thanks Mum, quite hungry though,' he said.

'I'll bet you are,' muttered Andy just loud enough for Sirius, Harry and Ginny to hear, the latter of whom turned a faint red.

It was then that the first Potter meal in 3 months began. All of the Potters were there including Sirius, there wasn't an empty chair screaming at them all and the jar of marmalade stood proudly on the table in front of Harry.

Everyone began helping themselves to food as Lily asked the room at large, 'Did I hear a bang a few minutes ago? Someone didn't break something did they? Because if you did I'd rather it was that hideous vase Petunia sent me last Christmas,' and James let out a laugh at the similarity of the situation and how he had been party to the destruction of the last one.

'Well...' started Andy looking directly at Harry and Ginny, only to be interrupted by his little brother.

'It was just Andy being an arse.'

'Harry, language!' Lily scolded while the rest of the table erupted into laughter.

'Probably true,' said Kat and J in unison, sending everyone into a new bout of laughter this time including Lily.

'Hey!' Andy exclaimed in a hurt tone. 'Mum!' he added noticing the tremble of her shoulders in silent mirth.

Lily just helplessly shrugged her shoulders as Kat put a hand on Andy's arm and said, 'Sorry hun, but your past history in that department isn't exactly a great defence for you.'

'Hang on,' said Andy attempting to defend his honour, 'there was only that one time when I accidentally forgot our anniversary.'

'Yes dear,' said Kat turning to the rest of the family. 'And do you want to know what he got me, after I reminded him of what the day was? A pebble. He said it showed the solidarity of our relationship.'

All of the men in the room bursts out laughing as Lily shook her head in pity at her son's idiocy.

'And there was the time when you used the whole of J's final research essay for his healer degree as kindling,' said Sirius.

'Sirius! I didn't mean to...' Andy moaned.

'Or when you told me, when I was 6, that because of global warming the North Pole was going to melt and Santa Claus was going to drown,' Harry said accusingly causing Ginny to spit out a mouthful of sausage in laughter.

'Harry, I...'

'Or when J got Wizard's Flu when he was 12 and you ran around the house screaming plague until Ministry officials turned up to erect a quarantine and you told them that J would probably have to dunked in bleach for the safety of the wizarding world,' Lily said between giggles.

'Yeah, thanks a lot. Real brotherly love,' J said with a roll of his eyes.

'But...'

'Or when you started a game of Quidditch with the twins and me in the kitchen and broke all of Mum's china before proceeding to lay all of the blame on Ginny,' said J.

'So?'

'I was only 2 at the time!' Ginny cried as tears of laughter rolled down her cheeks and the entire table, including Andy, collapsed at the hilarity of his past idiocies.

It was many minutes before any of them could form a coherent sentence again and breakfast could resume. The family all enthusiastically devoured the sausages, eggs, bacon and toast in front of them despite the now relatively cold temperature of the food.

It was as Harry's was spreading marmalade on his second piece of toast that Andy decided to exact a bit of revenge on his little brother.

'Enjoying the food Harry? I imagine you worked up one hell of an appetite this morning or did you get enough before you came down?' said Andy as he casually took a bite of sausage.

Harry choked on a mouthful of toast and glared at his brother through watering eyes, while Ginny turned a deep blushing red.

'What are you on about?' said Kat as she watched the rest of the family muffle smirks. It had been a long standing tradition in the Potter household, ever since a 13 year old Harry had endured a mortifying 'talk' with James and Remus (James had dragged Remus along for support as he felt no man should ever have to give the talk more than twice in their lifetime), for Harry to have to suffer all kinds of innuendoes from his merciless brothers and Sirius. After all these years, their parents now just looked on with amusement, reminiscing of their own teenage years. The remarks only got worse once Harry started dating Ginny and the added bonus of bringing a blush to more than one Weasley, when Ginny's brothers were around, was priceless. Matt had caught on early as he was accustomed to much worse from healer training but Kat still lived in blissful ignorance of the true meaning behind many of her fiancés seemingly random comments. Kat's innocence only made it more entertaining for Andy.

'Oh how I've missed this,' said Sirius with a delighted smirk.

'You have no idea,' muttered Lily in a voice so quiet that only James heard. He turned to look her in the eyes and exchanged the same look of pure joy and relief at their family being back together again.

'Yeah sure,' responded Ginny sarcastically as her face began to return to its pale colouring.

'Well, you know he hasn't _got any_ 'food' for several months. I'm amazed he can just sit there with some so close,' said J matter of factley as Matt gave him a friendly elbow in the side.

Harry groaned and buried his beetroot face in his hands as his family erupted into laughter once more at his expense.


	8. Chapter 8

**I was really overwhelmed with the reviews i got for the last chapter that I wanted to give you another one :D**

******After this chapter the updates will get a little slower as I have gone through my prewritten material and you will now be getting the new material as I write it. We are getting towards the end of this story but there will be another one set in the same world! So bare with me and keep reviewing and remember, I may leave you hanging at the end of a chapter but I will never let it drop. :D**

Chapter 8

Slowly, life in the Potter household returned to normal. A few days after that memorable breakfast, when Harry's blush reached new heights previously unknown in the Potter family and verging on the iconic Weasley trait, people began to take up their lives once again. J and Matt had returned to work and their home in Kent and a day later Andy and Kat said their goodbyes before internationally portkeying back to their apartment in Barcelona.

As the eldest Potter boys began to get back to their lives that had been on hold for so long, so did Harry try to get back to his.

After Harry's kidnapping James, Remus and Sirius had decided that Harry needed more training than he had if he was going to protect himself, those around him and have any success at killing Voldemort. The 2 aurors and DADA professor began giving Harry lessons in duelling, protection and escaping techniques (in case of any future kidnapping). To the surprise of James it had been Lily who had suggested it to her husband and his 2 best friends. Lily would not allow her little boy to go through that again not now he was back to his normal self. It was a mother's prerogative to do everything in her power to ensure the safety of her children and in this case it meant training Harry to fight.

Harry had hesitantly agreed but with the one condition that it wasn't just him. He knew, and deep down they all knew, that it was likely Voldemort would go after those he loved before this war was over. Therefore Ron, Fred and George joined Harry in his training sessions while Tonks and Lily helped Ginny and Hermione to improve their spellwork.

It had been the result of a very loud argument in the kitchen at Potter Manor that Ron and Harry managed to convince the girls they didn't need to know how to fight.

'Harry James Potter, if you think there is anyway I am going to be sitting on the sidelines during this war then you have another thing coming!' Ginny had shouted at him when they had explained there new training programme.

'Gin...' Ron began with a mixture of fear and desperation on his face.

'Oh don't you start Ronald!' Hermione jumped in with a snap. She was stood shoulder to shoulder with Ginny and her anger was forcing her bushy hair to multiply in volume.

Harry ran a hand through his raven hair in frustration. 'Look will you two just listen!'

The two girls stopped yelling in shock at Harry's harsh tone.

'You don't need to learn to fight because we will be there to protect you,' Harry explained calmly and slowly, letting the words sink in.

At these protective words a small smile pulled at the edge of Ginny's mouth but Hermione was still bristling with anger.

'Well that's all very sweet but I still think we should have some sort of training,' Hermione responded, adding coldly, 'We might have to protect you at some point you know!'

Harry floundered for a moment. He glanced at Ron and they both realised she did have quite a valid point. 'Ok, then we'll get Mum and Tonks to give you some spellwork training.'

Hermione considered this idea and in a similar fashion to Harry and Ron's silent communication, shared a quick look with Ginny. 'So you'll let us train?'

'Magical training only, but yes.' Harry responded quickly hoping he had sated Hermione and Ginny.

Hermione looked confused as to whether she had won, but settled for giving a shaky nod of agreement and proceeded to the library to bury her nose in her more familiar world of books, closely followed by Ron.

Ginny walked towards Harry with a satisfied grin on her face and put both hands on either side of his face. 'Thank you,' she whispered before closing the small gap between them in a purposeful kiss. She felt so overwhelmed that Harry understood their need to be a part of the fight and it was those powerful sentiments that she poured into the kiss until...

'Whoah whoah!' cried George entering the kitchen in a plume of green flames with Fred close behind.

'Yeah, less of the whole kissing thing infront of male siblings,' Fred moaned taking in the sight of their baby sister with Harry's arms around her.

'Well, Bill doesn't mind when I kiss Harry,' pouted Ginny over Harry's shoulder at the twins.

'Yeah well, we're pretty sure Bill's mind has been addled...' began Fred.

'...by over exposure to vela magic,' finished George. Ginny glared at him ferociously and both twins struggles not to take an automatic step backwards.

'Fine! None of that kissing stuff in front of certain sane male siblings,' said George knowlingly.

'Yeah well you weren't here when we started,' muttered Ginny angrily but only loud enough for Harry to hear who tried hard but ultimately failed to restrain a laugh from escaping, much to the confusion of the twins.

The boys had been working hard for 2 weeks and soon it was time for their first test.

'Ok, time to see what you've taken in,' said James to the four very nervous looking Gryffindors.

'Mwah ha haaaaa,' muttered Sirius in mock horror.

'Oh shut up Siri,' said James with a roll of his eyes.

'Jeez sorry. Just trying to give the event a bit of drama.'

Remus rolled his eyes as well and turned to fill in the boys on their task. 'Right boys, in the next room you will each find yourselves in a situation that, based on the training we've given you, you should have no trouble with. You'll each go in individually and blindfolded so you won't be able to see anything until you're in position. The portkey will take you to the right place and when we start the timer your blindfold will disappear. Quickest out wins, ok?'

'Merlin, this is just like school!' moaned George while the other 3 teenagers merely gave a shaky nod in their professor's direction.

'And we nominated Harry to go first,' said Sirius with a broad grin as the 3 Weasleys visibly relaxed.

Harry glared at Sirius as he felt a thick blindfold cover his eyes from behind. 'Thanks a bunch Siri.'

'No probs baby Potter,' Sirius replied to chuckles from the rest of the group who still had the power of sight.

'Here you go Harry,' James said pressing what felt like a biro into his hand. 'And good luck.'

With those words ringing in his ears Harry felt the tell tale tug at his navel and the portkey pulled him into the crushing darkness.

The world resolved under him and the black cloth over his eyes vaporized into a whisp of smoke. Harry looked about his new surrounding and felt his insides turn to ice.

He was sat on a cold concrete slab with an iron cage surrounding all 4 sides of him. The cage was neither tall enough to stand up in nor long enough to lie down in. As he looked through the thick metal bars he saw only an infinite dark expanse that was so poorly lit the room could have been 3 acres in area and Harry wouldn't have known. It was an almost exact replica.

It had been over a month since Harry had last seen this room and most people had left it in the past, just a vague memory. Most people had only heard small details of the conditions of Harry's imprisonment and the rescue team had been so absorbed with getting Harry home that they had barely taken in their surroundings. Most people didn't know what had been done to Harry, they could only guess based on Harry's injuries as he wouldn't ever tell anyone of what he had suffered through.

The tiny rational part of Harry's mind assumed that his father, Remus and Sirius had concocted this test based on subconscious memories of Harry's prison. However it was soon drowned in irrational thought as panic began to rise inside him. Ever since he had returned Harry had striven to never find himself alone, especially in any small dark rooms or the kitchen. He only managed to get to sleep when he was sharing a room with Ron or if he fell asleep near to someone, usually Ginny, during the day. No one seemed to notice anything different in Harry's behaviour as they focused themselves on training. But the dark memories of what had happened had pressed down on Harry's mind continuously and taunted him from the shadows.

He looked around the disgustingly familiar room and felt his heart rate rapidly increase.

'Please let me out!' Harry called out, trying and failing to keep the alarm out of his voice.

He was answered with nothing but the quiet echoes of his own voice. He grabbed one of the iron bars with a rock solid grip. He heard a gentle ringing and looked down to see his hands handcuffed together in front of him with a short chain attached to the concrete floor. There was something wrong with the shiny handcuffs, but Harry couldn't work out what it was. He couldn't move as much as he remembered he should be able to with the short chain tying him to the floor and not the wall of his cage.

Harry looked around wildly as he saw a shadow move in his peripheral vision. They were coming for him again. He was going to have to go through it all again; all the pain, all the fear, all hiding in the darkness.

'No, please let me out! Please!' Harry screamed into the dark as another shadow flitted past his vision. There was more than one of them in the room and he knew from past experience that that would just mean more pain.

His breathing came faster as he frantically pulled at the smooth solid bars, embedding the handcuffs, once more, in his recently healed but scarred wrists, desperately searching for an exit, an escape.

There were more and more shadows crawling around his cage, getting closer as they prepared their tools of torture. Harry could hear the scrape of metal, the crack of leather and the sparks of the building cruciatus curse. They were coming for him again.

Harry let out another scream of pure fear and desperation, all thoughts of coherent words buried beneath mounting terror.

Outside the room, James was pacing nervously. He had agreed to Harry going first only because he thought that his youngest would find this challenge easy in comparison to what he had been through in the past 6 years of school.

The teachers and students all whipped around to face the door to the task as a scream ripped through the room.

'What the hell?' said Fred and George in unison.

Remus, Sirius and James looked at each other in confusion, all wandering if the others had added something to the task unknown to the rest of the teachers.

Another scream reverberated out of the room and down the corridor.

In the same moment Ron wrenched open the heavy doors and sprinted into the dark room closely followed by the rest of the class. He took a sharp breath as he squinted through the darkness and saw a shockingly familiar sight; Harry's cage. This time however Harry was not lying limply on the cold floor but banging on the iron bars, breathing impossibly quickly and twisting his head around with impossible speed.

'Harry!' Ron cried as threw a spell at the door to the cage and flung it open.

Instantaneously Harry tried to break free from his prison and lunged for the opening only to be flung backwards as the handcuffs kept him locked to the floor.

'Do something!' Ron cried as they all watched Harry pulling desperately at the chains with shaking hands.

James took a step forward but Remus put a hand on his shoulder.

'You'll never get the handcuffs off,' Remus said with panic tainting his voice. 'He'll never let you get close enough. You're gonna have to break the chain, just let him get out.'

James nodded in sorrow as he realised the truth of his best friend's words and that his son would only hurt himself more if James got any closer. He aimed his wand at the bolts attaching the chains to the floor and muttered, 'Reducto.'

With a bang and a puff of concrete dust the chains became free and Harry stumbled out of the cage. He was breathing so fast but he just couldn't satisfy the burn in lungs no matter how hard he forced them to work. He knew he had to get out of this room, the chances of him actually escaping were minimal but if they wanted to play games with him then he knew better than to anger them by not playing along.

He stumbled towards the open doors, light streaming through creating golden pools on the floor. It was becoming more and more difficult to focus as the room began to spin and his vision darkened at the edges. He only reached as far as the doorway when his legs gave out and he found himself leaning against the door frame in a puddle of light.

'Harry, are you ok?' Ron said gently as he knelt before his best friend's trembling form.

'Ron?' Harry said in a tiny voice between breaths. He squinted at the ginger haired boy before him. Why was it so hard for him to see? Had he dropped his glasses? A sharp but short pain lanced through both of Harry's wrists in a familiar way and he vaguely recognised the site of Remus with a pair of handcuffs in his hands.

'Harry,' James said putting a hand on his shoulder and ignoring the slight flinch Harry gave. 'Harry you need to calm down, you're breathing too fast.'

James' words didn't seem to register with Harry whose eyes kept up their rapid movement around the room especially towards the dark expanse to his right. He could feel his vision becoming darker as any remaining strength vanished from his muscles and he slowly slid down the door frame.

'Whoa there,' came Sirius' voice and Harry felt himself being propped up against his strong chest. He was grateful of the support but it was doing little to help his spinning head.

'James, use this, he's having a panic attack again,' Remus said hurriedly with a rustle.

James looked his son in the eyes and gently placed the paper bag over his nose and mouth. Harry panicked at the intrusion and tried to weakly push it away.

'No Harry, it will help,' said James reassuringly as Sirius stroked a hand through Harry's impossible hair.

Harry continued with his feeble attempts at batting away the bag. They had twice tried using suffocation on him, once with a huge water tank and once with dirty pieces of cloth. He wouldn't go through that again, Harry thought, he couldn't.

'Harry its ok, it will help,' Remus said gently, kneeling alongside James and trying to coax some trust out of Harry.

'It's not going to work!' James cried out in desperation as he knelt by his son and helplessly watched Harry's lips turn blue and his eyes blink rapidly as though he couldn't focus behind his round glasses.

'What is going on? I thought I heard a scream,' said Lily in full mother mode. She had just appeared in the hallway and was standing silhouetted in the doorway to the library where the girls spent their time practising. She staggered back into the doorframe as she took in the sight before her.

Ron and the twins were against the wall, opposite an open door to a room that Lily couldn't make out in the darkness. Ron was sat against the wall with tears tracking down his face, a twin knelt each side of him with a comforting hand on each of his shoulders all staring at the dark doorway. Lily's heart ached as she saw Harry lying propped up against Sirius in the doorway with James and Remus kneeling in front of them and begging Harry to trust them.

'James, what's going on?' Lily cried racing down the corridor to her son and distraught husband.

'It's happening again,' James said with a trembling voice as he reached out to her. 'We were just trying to test them and none of us thought what it might do to Harry. We thought he was alright.'

Lily felt the truth in his words as she watched her gasping son. Inside she knew they had all tried to ignore anything Harry did that suggested his kidnapping had lingered in his mind. They had all tried and nearly succeeded to forget the event and had assumed Harry was doing the same thing. None of them had considered the fact that Harry might still be being tortured by his own memories.

'Lily?' Tonks voice echoed out of the library. 'What are you doing? We've still got to...'

Her words were cut off as she took in the scene in the corridor.

Underneath the pain and anguish flooding her brain, a spark flickered in Lily's mind.

'Tonks,' she called frantically. 'Get Ginny quickly.'

**Please please please put a little review in that box, yep... that one... just down there! :D**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

For a moment Tonks disappeared into the library, only to reappear with a flaming red head streaking ahead of her.

'Back off boys,' Lily whispered as she saw Ginny flying towards them. 'He'll just get overwhelmed otherwise and without Andy and J Ginny will have to try to do it on her own.' Lily explained in answer to the pained expressions of Remus and James when she had suggested leaving Harry's side.

The adults backed away except for Sirius who was now integral to Harry still being vaguely upright to give Ginny space to kneel before her love.

Lily watched, her hands clasped tightly in James', as Ginny laid her hand on his chest and muttered quietly to him. A familiar hand on her shoulder made her whip around in confusion as she took in the sight of her middle son standing before her. He must have run out of the hospital as he still wore the dark green robes and troubled expression that always followed a shift at St Mungo's.

'J, what are you doing here?' Lily said throwing her arms around J's neck.

'Hermione flooed me,' J replied, concern thick in his voice and filling his eyes. 'She told me it was happening again. I thought it would but not after all this time.'

'I know.' Lily took a deep breath of something vaguely resembling relief and looked around for Hermione. She was crouched with both arms around Ron. When Lily met her gaze she mouthed 'thank you' to which Hermione merely shrugged her shoulders, silent tears falling thick and fast.

'Harry.'

Ginny's quiet voice washed over Harry's panicking mind. He felt her small hand rest on his chest as she took in just how frantic his heart beat was.

'Harry,' Ginny said again in a soft voice, a part of wondered with amazement how she was keeping the horror out of her voice. She couldn't believe they had damaged her Harry so deeply.

Harry's flickering eyes roamed the waves of fire he could see before him before settling on those brown eyes that he would recognise anywhere.

'Gin?' Harry rasped. He could feel the muscles in his chest screaming in pain and he knew he was hyperventilating but he just couldn't stop. He forced his muscles to keep working as he knew the moment he closed his eyes he would lose sight of his beautiful Ginny.

'Harry, you are safe,' Ginny whispered as she stared deep into his green eyes. 'Harry, you're at home. You aren't their anymore, you are safe.'

Harry stared up at her and thought these words through before something finally snapped inside him and he realised he was actually sitting in his home surrounded by his family.

'Gin, I'm sorry,' he whispered and he felt the burning muscles in his chest relax as a tear escaped from behind his glasses.

'Harry, it's ok. Everything's ok,' said Ginny lovingly as she pulled him into her arms and breathed a huge sigh of relief along with every other occupant of the hallway as she felt Harry's breathing slow dramatically. She stared over Harry's shoulder and met Sirius' approving nod with a small smile.

J watched as Ginny pulled Harry into her arms. It was then that he realised just how deep Harry's scars actually ran.

'J,' James said quietly putting a hand on his son's shoulder, his other arm was tightly wrapped around Lily who gazed at the scene on the floor before her. 'Can you check he's alright?'

J looked at his father for a long moment as they both exchanged a knowing look. Anyone could tell that Harry's was far from being alright.

'I'll see what I can do, Dad,' J replied quietly turning to his little brother. It had been a long time since J had faced a medical situation and felt this helpless. He had raced through the healer training and graduated it as he had graduated Hogwarts, with top marks. He had sprinted through promotions and absorbed enough muggle medicine information to be given his own department in diagnostic medicine. He was given the cases when no one else knew what to do, especially the ones that involved muggle diseases and illnesses that were too stubborn for the normal healing spells. It had been a long time since J had looked at a patient and found his mind completely empty of ideas. For it to be his brother in front of him nearly brought J to his knees there in the hallway.

He knelt down slowly next to Ginny and gingerly placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. At the contact Harry shot into a sitting position pulling away from Ginny's embrace.

'It's alright Harry, it's just me,' J said looking him directly in the eye. J always found it incredible how each of the Potter children had inherited one thing from their parents in terms of looks. Andy had got their Dad's brown eyes and J had got their Mum's red hair. But Harry had got both the unruly dark hair of James and Lily's unique green eyes which now stared back at J completely empty of emotion as Harry built up his emotional walls once more. J cast a silent healing spell on Harry's wrists, which were paper cuts compared to the gouges of flesh the handcuffs had taken out last time.

'I know who you are J,' Harry said in a strained voice before breaking eye contact and attempting to stand up. The panic attack had weakened him, not that Harry would ever admit to it, and it took every ounce of his strength to not allow his legs to buckle beneath him. Despite his best efforts he staggered slightly and put one hand against the wall to steady himself as a hand grabbed his shoulder.

'Whoah there Harry,' said Sirius who helped him steady himself, another flinch not going unnoticed. 'Hang on, just let J check you...'

'I'm fine Siri,' snapped Harry pulling himself out of Sirius' grip. The sharp movement made his stomach roll as his fuzzy mind tried to clear against the rising nausea.

'Harry, don't worry,' said Lily approaching her son. She had been worried about Harry's angry retort to J and Sirius' help. 'We only want to help you.'

'Well I'm fine, thank you,' Harry responded, the lack of emotion now visible in his voice as well as his eyes. This was always Harry's first response to emotion especially powerful ones like fear and anger. He had never allowed himself to feel them and so didn't know how to deal with them when they threatened to break through his hard exterior. It broke Lily's heart to think how all of Harry's life had been about preparing him and the next mission but she had failed when it came to preparing Harry for everyday things such as emotions.

'Harry I really think you should let J look at you,' Ginny whispered to Harry lovingly.

'I said I'm fine Gin. I just got a bit dizzy, I think I'll go for a lie down.' The rolling waves of nausea were threatening to overcome Harry's iron clad emotional control, he had to get out of there or they would all know how weak he really was. With his parting statement hanging in the silence of the hallway he quickly dragged himself away from his family and up the staircase to the bathroom closest to his bedroom.

He made it just in time as the over exertion of climbing the stairs broke him and he emptied his stomach into the toilet. It was after several minutes and with an aching throat that he leaned away and against the cool tiles of the bathroom wall. The combined exhaustion of the panic attack and bringing up all the days food threatened to overwhelm him and he would've liked nothing more than to close his eyes their on the cold wooden floor of the bathroom. But someone might find him and start asking questions. It just wasn't an option.

With an arm on the basin Harry wrenched himself into a standing position and brushed his teeth before soothing the burning in his stomach and throat with a large glass of water. He listened at the door for a few moments ensuring he hadn't been followed. It was taking all his concentration to keep himself standing and he thought it unlikely he would be able to invent a satisfactory answer to why he had been in the bathroom so long for any inquisitors waiting outside. After a minute of silence Harry decided to chance his luck and opened the door to a mercifully deserted corridor.

Once in his room Harry shut the door and locked it manually and magically. Judging by the sunlight shining outside he estimated it to be only lunchtime. He went to the windows and pushed the curtains as far open as they would go and opened both windows fully for good measure despite the brisk wind that the day's dreary weather had brought. Then he turned on the overhead light, his desk lamp and the repaired bedside light. Finally with the room flooded with as much light as possible Harry cast a quick but strong silencing spell before collapsing on top of his bedcovers, exhaustion finally claiming him.

**Got this chapter done quicker than I thought and thought I'd post it soon as, so excuse any spelling/grammar issues as I didn't really have time to check it properly.**

**Hope you like it and if you do let me know! There are over 100 people reading this story but only 23 reviews so please let me know what you think :D**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

He was so cold.

There wasn't much Harry felt confident about but the biting cold was absolute. It sunk to his very bones and he felt them turn to ice despite how hard he was working his muscles. That was the other thing he was certain of. Cold and run.

It was as though there was an ethereal voice whispering over his shoulder, 'Run!' He couldn't recognise the quiet voice but believed it implicitly. His frozen muscles screamed in protest as he pushed himself forward with abandon. Forward, that was the only important thing. He had to keep moving, had to chase away the cold and... something else?

Was that why he was running? Harry's mind reeled in confusion as he fought himself to keep running and suppress the rising need to turn around, to see his enemy. The whispering voice was louder now as it hissed down Harry's ear in almost a mocking tone, 'Runnnnn!'

For a moment Harry stumbled in surprise but the mounting fear of what was chasing him drove him onwards through the endless blackness.

'Runnnn, liiiiittle Potter,' the voice hissed venomously in a voice Harry would never forget.

This time Harry fell to the ground but whipped around quickly to face his pursuer. Then in the darkness behind him smoke began to swirl around itself and Harry scrambled back further into the darkness. The pale smoke fell into place on a skeletal face; smooth hairless head and sickly grey skin. It began to pick up speed and rushed towards Harry's trembling prone form as a pair of blood red eyes blinked in the sunket sockets.

'Runnnn, Harry!'

Harry wrenched himself backwards and shut his eyes waiting for the pain but only feeling a falling sensation. With a thump he threw his eyes open and found himself on the floor at the side of his bed in his maroon room.

For several moments it was all Harry could do to lie there, the only sound escaping him; his gasping breathing. He gazed around his familiar surroundings; the carbon copy of a Hogwarts canopy bed, his aged oak wardrobe and his beloved Firebolt leaning against the wall in the corner of the room.

With a final calming breath Harry wrenched himself upright, leaning heavily on the deep red covers of his bed. A wave of exhaustion washed over him and he sat down on the bed to keep his legs from giving out.

Glancing at his clock realisation hit him. It was only 4 o'clock, no wonder his head was pounding and his limbs felt like lead. These nightmares were going to kill him before Voldemort even got the chance, Harry thought with a cynical chuckle at his own misery.

With a grim smile plastered on his face he left the privacy of his room and descended the stairs to face his family. For better or worse...

'Just remember, he may not like this but he needs it,' said James to the group at large.

'Might not like it?!' said Ron. 'He's going to hate us. He never wants any help; I don't see how forcing it at him is going to change that.'

'Ron!' Hermione scalded him followed with a smack to the back of the head, much to the amusement of Fred and George. 'Harry is our best friend and even if he doesn't want this we will do whatever it takes to help him!'

'Alright alright,' Ron muttered. Someone whispered something that sounded a lot like 'whipped' and Ron threw a glare at Fred and George's grinning faces behind Hermione's back.

There wasn't a surface in the lounge of Potter Manor that didn't have someone perched on it. Fred, George, J and Matt were leaning against the vast side board idly chatting about Quidditch, though anyone could tell that J's heart wasn't really in it especially Matt who kept a tight hold around his waist. On the two sofas in the centre of the room sat Lily, James and Kat, with Andy perched on the arm and opposite them Remus, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Sirius leaning against the back of the sofa. The coffee table between the two banks of adults held Ron and Hermione who kept casting worried looks at Ginny at the far end of the coffee table. She sat staring, unblinkingly, into Harry's favourite and currently empty armchair.

She needed her Harry back. He had been pretending he was back to normal for so long but he wasn't as good a liar as Ginny was. 16 years of practise she had had. She didn't know when she had learnt to hide her emotions, but in a house full of boys it had just sort of happened. It was rare that any of her brothers had seen her cry and little did they realise that this was the reason behind her volatile temper. Bottles crack eventually, including those containing feelings.

Ron had watched Ginny retreat back into herself and he hated to see it happen again. It was exactly what she did after the horrors of her first year, hidden them. It was a haunted girl that had returned from the hospital wing a few days after their escape from the chamber. For several weeks she barely uttered a word to anyone and constantly sought time alone in the garden for hours on end. Until one day she had come downstairs and picked up her life again as though the past month hadn't happened. To most people she was her normal bubbly and energetic self, but if you looked closer you could see the walls built up around her and the spark had disappeared from her eyes.

It was happening again. As Harry retreated into himself and hid from the pain did Ginny. But unlike Harry, Ginny wasn't hiding from the horrors of physical pain but hiding from the grief of slowly losing the man she loved.

James took a deep breath and the room turned silent as all heads swung around towards the hunched figure stood in the doorway.

Clasping Lily's hand James stood and faced the terrified face of his youngest son.

'Harry, this is an intervention.'

Harry's head was pounding. With every step he took his muscles protested at the effort they were being forced to make. If he could just sit here for a moment, on these stairs...maybe sleep...

No, that was a bad idea. Harry knew that the moment he let himself relax the nightmares would return and outside the seclusion of his room anyone might hear. And then they would all know how weak he really was.

He knew they would all find out eventually, even in his sleep deprived state he wasn't delirious enough to believe that they weren't going to notice how exhausted Harry was and quickly put two and two together. And the moment they did, they would all turn away from him. His destiny had been to fight Voldemort since he was a year old, his whole life had been training for his final task and now they would see he couldn't do it. He was just a scared little boy, not a hero.

Finding himself at the bottom of the staircase, Harry forced his feet onwards whilst trying to ignore the taunting voices in his head. It was pointless really as he would hear the same hurtful but true things from his loved ones very soon.

Harry followed the sound of muffled voices down the hall to the doors of the lounge. The voices were quiet, even through the thick oak door, but he could tell there were a lot of people in the room beyond. He took a deep breath and turned the door handle admitting himself to the room full of his family and friends, as always resigned to his fate.

**Sorry it's a bit on the short side but I thought it was the perfect place to put in a chapter break. Also you would've had to have waited even longer for me to write this chapter haha.**

**Pretty please leave a little review, makes all this writing feel worth it to know people out there are reading! :D**

**And here is a public thank you to singingcaro who has reviewed very chapter of this story- it makes my day knowing i'll get at least 1 review so thank you :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**I don't normally write anything before a chapter but I thought I should apologise for the shortness of the chapter. I know it's short but I think it was the only way this chapter was going to work and I didn't want to fill it with unecessary waffle (kind of like this note is turning into really). So anyway I hope you like it **

Chapter 11

Harry's scared face looked back at them all for a moment before he slammed his shields back down and a look of emptiness replaced it.

'An intervention?' he said, his voice as devoid of emotion as his face.

The members of the sitting room exchanged nervous glances as if trading off who would go first.

'Yes Harry,' J said, walking over to the sofa his parents were sat. He paused for a moment searching for the right thing to say. 'Do you know why we're doing this?'

This question took Harry by surprise. He had anticipated the usual barrage of, are you ok? How are you? Those questions Harry was an expert in answering, answering in a lie so smoothly that nearly everyone had begun to not notice. This was going to cut it today, they weren't going to let him get away with 'fine' today; they knew. But did they know how far from fine he was? No. He could answer that one immediately. None of them would understand how could they?

The gathered family watched Harry silently and James recognised the look on Harry's face showing his mind was working at a million miles per hour to try and resolve the situation back into his control.

'Harry?' J repeated, trying to drag Harry's attention back to the living room. 'I said; do you know why we're doing this?'

Harry snapped back to reality and said automatically, 'I'm fine.'

At this Lily dropped her head in defeat but most of the male occupants of the room let out various snorts of morbid amusement, the loudest of which being from Andy as he stood and began to pace next to his brother and parents.

'Well at least you've still got your sense of humour,' Andy said darkly, his voice entirely humourless. He was stilled by J placing an arm on his shoulder.

Harry looked at the scoffing men in confusion, 'Well I am fine.'

At this Andy seemed drop to the same level of resignation that his mother was already at.

'Harry you're not and we all know it,' said Hermione in a tiny voice, her eyes only meeting Harry's once she got all her words out.

'She's right Harry,' Ron said quietly after it was apparent Harry wasn't going to say anything. Hermione held his hand even tighter as he said, 'I know you aren't sleeping.'

At this Harry visibly flinched as though he had been dealt a physical blow. How could they know about his nightmares? He had always been so careful with silencing spells and keeping himself awake, especially in the darkness of night-time.

'You don't let anyone touch you,' James said, masking his fear and concern for his youngest. 'You never go outside when it's dark anymore...'

'You aren't eating,' interjected Molly quietly looking at Harry's wrought and pale figure.

'And...' James hesitated knowing that this was the point when Harry would go running. 'And you haven't talked to anyone about what happened,' James finished resignedly.

As predicted Harry took a step backwards towards the door, 'I don't need to talk about anything,' he garbled out rapidly, eyes flying across the room, from side to side.

'Harry you do need to talk about what happened to you,' J pleaded with his brother.

'J is right Harry,' Sirius said in agreement. 'We are all here because we care about you, but no matter what you think you are not dealing with what happened to you at Malfoy Manor.'

With those last 2 words Harry felt ice grip his heart. He knew his left hand had begun to tremble and hid it quickly behind his back. He couldn't live through that again, it was bad enough that he had to in his dreams but not here as well, not in the one place he thought he was safe.

The rest of the family looked on as Harry's gaze darted around the room and he tried unsuccessfully tried to hide his shaking arm. They all knew this was what might happen; J had talked them through it. They had to force Harry to his breaking point before he would ever deal with what had happened to him. The whole room knew this was necessary but it didn't make it any easier on any of them.

'Harry, you've got to recognise what they did to you and not just bottle it away,' J urged gently watching Harry try to compute what he was saying. They were nearly there, J could tell.

'Harry, we are all here for you. You can talk to any of us...' James began but that was enough smash the bottle.

'I can't talk to any of you!' Harry cried, his whole body trembling with fear and buried rage. The room turned silent at this outburst.

'Everything they did to me,' Harry continued shouting now at the whole room. 'Every time I sat curled up in that little cage waiting for what cruel torture they could think of next to try out on me! Every time I would try and escape the horror of my surroundings in my unconsciousness and that damned charm would make my most unimaginable fears come true!'

Harry was breathing heavily now, the only other sound in the stony silence of the living room. 'None of you could ever understand!'

And with that he sprinted out of the room and through the front door with a bang.

Sobs began to escape from Lily as James though an arm around her, holding her close against his chest. Fred and George looked as though they had gone into shock, as did Mr and Mrs Weasley and Remus and Tonks, whilst Harry's two brothers just looked broken.

Everyone was broken out of their reverie by Ginny. She hadn't moved an inch or uttered a word since Harry had entered the room but now she silently uncurled herself from the armchair and all eyes in the room followed her as she walked up to Ron, Andy and J. Her face was white as a sheet and in a quiet, strained voice she called Fred and George over. Her brother's shared a worried look. They knew that when Ginny was angry you ran for cover and hoped it wasn't you that annoyed her, but when she went quiet was when she was beyond angry.

'I want the 5 of you to go outside and find _him_,' she said in the same impossibly flat voice, emphasising 'him' with a hint of the underlying venom. 'Find him and bring him back here. Drag him if you have to. Now.'

Without hesitation the 5 men got up and left the room and Ginny resumed her seat in the armchair, directly facing the door. The adults shared concerned looks but said nothing, hoping that this might be what Harry needed to break him free of his past.

The group of 5 didn't have a hard time finding where Harry had stormed off to. As they left the house through the back door they all saw his hunched and withered silhouette pacing at the bottom of the garden in the low light of dusk. They all marched over to him, without thought as to what they would say to make him return to the house.

As they got closer it was clear that Harry was not faring well. His whole frame was trembling, his skin was a mottled grey and he looked as close to a breakdown as you can get, while still clinging on.

It was with surprise when they reached Harry that Andy found he knew exactly what to say to get Harry back in the house.

'Harry,' Harry's head shot round at the sound of his brother's voice before focussing in on the one word, his world.

'Ginny.'

**What do you think? I'm worried my writing might be getting a bit bitty, and a bit focused on describing the scene and character placements than the emotions of the characters. Let me know what you think, and anything you'd like to see- if I can't get it into this story then it will definitly go into my next one.**

**Thank you to anyone who reviewed again :D**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Andy, J and the 3 youngest Weasley boys followed Harry as he resolutely marched back up to the house. It was like watching someone being pulled along by a fishing line, but being pulled over glass. Every step he made seemed to be painful but unquestionable.

They followed him down the dark hallway. Darkness had crept up on all of them, in more ways than one, but it seemed no-one was too concerned with the normalities of turning the lights on. As he reached the open doorway to the lounge Harry's step hesitated as though he were having a painful internal conflict; whether to enter or run. Andy felt his heart twist painfully as he watched his baby brother force himself into the room and to face his fears for the first time in his life.

No-one had uttered a word since Harry's abrupt departure, but as he returned the silence seemed to become even more absolute. Harry glanced around the room, barely holding anyone's gaze for more than a few seconds until he landed on a pair of beautiful brown eyes; beautiful, but livid brown eyes.

'How dare you?'

Ginny spoke barely louder than a whisper but the words hung in the air filled with pure anger, so much so that her brothers, who were still in the doorway, took an automatic step back.

Harry kept his eyes trained on her prone figure, in their armchair. This was the first time she had spoken and it broke Harry's heart that it would be her who would speak the truth about his cowardice. She was going to reveal him for what he really was; a weak, frightened, broken little boy, in front of his whole family, everyone he had ever cared about and hoped cared for him in return. They were all going to find out and when they did, that was it for his 'family'. They wouldn't want him around; he had no use, no purpose if he couldn't fulfil his destiny to kill Voldemort.

'How dare you Harry James Potter!' Ginny repeated louder this time, rising from her chair. James and Lily and Mr and Mrs Weasley exchanged worried looks, but none of them were brave enough to stop Ginny and deep down they all hoped that it might be what both of the young couple needed.

Still Harry said nothing, but kept his eyes locked on Ginny, incensing her beyond belief.

'Oh sure, you go quiet now!' Ginny shouted at him, completely oblivious to the rest of the occupants of the lounge. She couldn't believe the words that had come pouring out of his mouth just a few minutes ago.

'How can you think that no-one in this room cares about you? Cares about what happened to you?' she continued just as enraged. 'We might have not realised how it had affected you to start with but we sure as hell know now, and the only person that is standing in the way of us helping is you!'

The boys and teachers who had been present at the infamous 'test' flinched at the memories of Harry's haunted face peering through the bars of that cage. It hit Sirius particularly hard as he remembered the promise he had made to himself when they had first rescued Harry that he would never allow his Godson to look at him like that again. How had he let that happen? How had none of them realised that Harry was not ok?

Harry dropped his gaze at these words, not being able to bare the shame and guilt any longer. Staring at Ginny made it all too true, too real. The cracks in his wall, that had lasted so long and protected him against the horrors he had seen, began to widen as he held her gaze. Every word she spoke pounded into the trembling wall and Harry felt the swell of a sheer mass of buried fear and anger.

'No!' Ginny cried stepping around the coffee table and advancing on a shaking Harry. 'You look at me Harry Potter!'

Ginny now stood directly in front of Harry, 'Look at me!'

The shock of Ginny's sudden closeness broke something inside Harry and his head resignedly flicked up to meet her gaze.

Ginny stared back into those harrowing eyes and all the anger she had felt overtake her flooded away in an instant as she saw all the pain and fear stare back at her.

She placed a hand on his chest and with the other cupped the side of his face, her voice this time just more than a whisper and filled with hurt and sadness. 'How could you think I wouldn't understand?'

These words were Harry's final undoing. With a fresh wave of guilt his precious wall crumbled into pieces and he finally managed to force out the one thing he had wanted to admit since he could remember.

'I don't know what to do.'

With that Harry was overcome with a flood of buried emotion and it brought him to his knees, taking Ginny, by his hand clasped to hers on his chest, with him.

'I know Harry,' Ginny replied hoarsely as she tried to force her tears back. 'And that's ok.'

As the first sob wracked though Harry's body Ginny wrapped her arms around her broken hero and finally allowed her own tears to cascade down her face, as Harry finally succumbed to his past horrors.

The rest of the lounge looked on with a mixture of sadness, mainly Lily and Mrs Weasley, and relief, from all the Marauders. James looked down at his son's trembling form, gripping onto his girlfriend for support, and breathed properly for the first time in too many weeks. The days after Harry's rescue had seen James overflowing with pure anger and a desire for revenge so strong that it had taken Remus, Sirius and eventually Lily's Petrificus Totalus before he would listen to reason and eventually see the insanity in his plan, or lack of plan. James had agonizingly watched as Harry had fought back to health and as he had James had begun to come to terms with what had happened to his youngest son. They say that no-one suffers as much as the victim and while that's true, James couldn't help adding that it's hardly a picnic for everyone else either.

As James had come to terms with the horrific events that had conspired, he became more and more aware that Harry wasn't. So at this moment James felt lighter than he had in a longer time, as an immeasurable weight of worry lifted from his shoulders and his heart. He knew that things were going to be far from easy from here on out, years in the auror department had taught him that much, but as least they were going at last.

Knowing his son as he did, James unwrapped himself from Lily's embrace and silently signalled everyone to leave the sitting room and give Harry and Ginny some space. Harry was only just beginning to let himself feel again and the embarrassment of realising he had done that in front of the whole family was a sure fire way of him building up his walls again.

Ginny held onto Harry as tightly as he held her, as though the pair of them were fighting to hold each other together. Her heart was bursting with sadness and relief but all of the anger that moments ago had been consuming her, was nowhere in sight. Her thoughts now were solely of the broken man weeping in her embrace.

Hearing a shuffle Ginny's attention snapped backed to the sitting room of Potter Manor as she looked up from the crook of Harry's neck to see her family and the Potters creeping out of the door. Her eyes met James' as he turned to face her, a hand on the handle of each of the double doors. He gave her a look filled with understanding and sadness and a small smile before closing the doors between them and leaving Harry and Ginny alone.

'Ginny?' Harry forced out in a tiny voice between sobs.

Ginny leaned back and took Harry's face in both her small hands, lifting it gently until his wide, red-rimmed eyes met hers. She looked at him with what can only be described as love. It took Harry a moment to process this, as he realised that there was no pity or anger or hate between them, and when he did the enormity of the relief he felt threatened to overwhelm him again.

'Gin, I'm so scared.'

And there it was. The words he had been too terrified to voice, because to voice them made them true. A small part of Harry's mind registered the irony that it was years ago when Lupin had predicted that Harry's greatest fear was in fact fear itself. But it was only now, in the room he had grown up in, sat on the hard floor, in Ginny's arms did he finally allow himself to acknowledge that it was true, and that he was truly terrified. Everything rested on him, everyone's lives. And now there was no Dumbledore to guide him any longer, to tell him what to do and what he needed to do. So many people had already died because of him; he was so scared of that happening again. He was so afraid of being alone in this.

Ginny once again lifted Harry's terrified eyes to hers and, as though she could read Harry's mind, uttered the second most treasured 3 words he needed to hear more than anything, 'You're not alone.'

Harry looked deep into her eyes and imagined at that moment that he was looking right into her soul, and it was beautiful.

Then she said the 3 most important words in Harry's world and he could no longer keep the tears back and once again allowed himself to be enveloped in his own sadness and Ginny's small but impossibly strong arms.

'I love you.'

**So what do we think people? Did you like it? Too over the top or just right? Let me know what you think and as i wrap up this story if anyone has any ideas of things they'd like to see in the future let me know and I'll see what I can do :D**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

It was much later in the night when Lily found herself lying in the arms of her husband. It was an hour after they had left the lounge when the Weasleys decided to make their exit with promises of bringing over a picnic lunch tomorrow for everyone from Mrs Weasley and several vice like hugs for all of the Potters. Ron and Hermione had shared a meaningful look before Ron turned to Lily and James and politely asked if they could stay over at Potter Manor. Despite the politeness of Ron's request, Lily could see by the fixed set of his and Hermione's determined features that they had already made the decision to stay here, whether it be with permission in warm beds or on the cold doorstep after sneaking back from The Burrow. There was no way they were going to leave Harry to suffer and heal alone, besides both of them weren't afraid to admit that they reckoned they would hardly sleep so far away from the other half of their quartet. Lily noted all this with a small smile as she seemed to acknowledge what had been in front of her all summer, and quite possibly for longer than that. It was no longer a trio but a quartet that her youngest was a part of and it was with this uplifting realisation that Lily had agreed unwaveringly; it seemed that it wasn't just her teenager who had grown up without anyone noticing.

After another hour or so and still with no movement from the closed doors of the lounge and the residents of Potter Manor began to slowly drift away to their beds. Lily looked across the greatly emptier kitchen at the final two occupants sat at the table. They sat side by side in chairs, Ron with his arm around Hermione's shoulders and his other hand clasped in both of Hermione's. She had looked at them with a new kind of admiration as they showed no sign of moving anytime soon, so sign of abandoning their waiting vigil. Whispering a heartfelt goodnight she had taken James hand and taken him up to bed.

In the comforting familiarity of their bed Lily held James arms around herself, a small part of her curious as to whether she might float away with this new lightness she felt as the huge weight of maternal worry eased immensely from her heart. Her baby was coming back to them, slowly but absolutely surely, and it was this thought that brought a contented sigh of relief to escape her lips.

'I know exactly what you mean,' James whispered in her ear and unconsciously tightening his arms around her.

'We're finally starting to get our Harry back and after everything he's been through, things that no-one should have had to suffer through let alone a boy, our boy...' Lily's increasingly angry voice broke off in a choked sob as she turned to bury her head in James' neck.

'Lils,' James whispered quietly. When the only response he received was for her to turn further into the pillow James gently slid backwards a bit and pulled Lily out of the pillow so the two of them were lying facing each other on their sides. Lily's face was no longer buried in the pillow but instead locked on James' handsome features and his untameable hair. For a while neither of them spoke and the silence that filled the room was one of peace and contentment that covered them like an extra blanket.

It was James that eventually broke the comfortable silence. 'We can't go there,' he said, eyes still locked on Lily's green ones. Taking a deep breath he continued, 'It's not us that have the right to wallow in self pity and be angry at the world, we need to be there for him because Merlin knows he's been through enough to be the centre of attention for a while, even if he doesn't want it.'

At this, Lily couldn't help but crack a small smile. She wondered in that moment how it was that despite everything she had put this man through he had still never given hoping, never given up trying to catch her. And even now, after years of marriage and children, he was still that same determined and hopeful boy that could always make her smile, even if she had hid that smile from him for most of their time at Hogwarts. Still the same man, just with the occasional wrinkle and odd grey hair that Lily knew James pulls out in secret, to her delight of future teasing.

'You're right and thank you,' she said equally as quiet, not wanting to risk breaking the serene calm that had overtaken their bedroom. 'We will get our Harry back,' she added snuggling closer into James' embrace.

'We already are,' James replied closing his eyes.

The following morning broke to see almost all of the Potter Manor's inhabitants waking from the best night's sleep many of them had had in too long. Lily and James walked down the staircase arm in arm, contented smiles evident on both their faces. These faces wavered in confusion as they reached the hallway and saw their eldest two sons, Sirius and Remus all huddled around the crack of the slightly open lounge door. All except Remus were grinning mischievously, while Remus looked on happier and more peaceful than James had seen his best friend for a long while.

Lily, recognising the warning looks of impending trouble, placed both hands on her hips. 'What are you up to?'

Andy and Sirius whipped around with hurt looked on their faces and open mouths about to spew a load of excuses, when Remus interrupted them.

'It's not that,' he said softly. And grinning added, 'for once.'

'Then what...' began James, but was interrupted by J putting a finger to his lips in 'quiet' and indicated towards the a-jar doorway.

Lily moved closer to the gap into the lounge and felt her heart melt as she looked on the scene before her.

The two couples were in exact mirror images of each other. They had obviously moved the coffee table out of their way and Harry and Ron were sat on the floor facing each other with their backs against opposite sofas. Their respective girls were sat between their outstretched legs, leaning back against the boys' chests. Both boys' arms were wrapped protectively around the girls but Ginny had her hands clasped over Harry's in her own form of protection for him.

She took a deep steadying breath and turned back to the crowded hallway, with a wide grin across her face, whilst pulling the door shut with a gentle click.

'Time for breakfast then,' she said to the group at large, the grin never wavering for a moment as she headed towards the kitchen. 'I finally have all my boys back,' she added to herself as her husband, sons and 2 best friends followed her lead, each carrying looks of contentment or impending mischief.

Half an hour later, the Potters sat down to their second attempt at breakfast, the first having been ruined by Sirius who had been under the impression he could fry eggs the muggle way. Suffice to say reality, Lily's newspaper and half a dozen eggs having whacked him from several different directions, effectively dismissed that notion.

It was just as Sirius was about to begin blaming the weather for his poor attempt at fried eggs, having already tried all the plausible excuses and was now running through steadily implausible ones much to everyone's entertainment, that an exhausted but considerably happier Hermione and Ron entered the kitchen, arm in arm.

'Morning,' Sirius said suggestively giving the pair a stage wink as they slipped into chairs at the table.

Hermione, as per usual, blushed enough to do a Weasley proud but Ron's sleep deprived brain seemed to put food as a priority over retaliating to Sirius' jibe and simply began helping himself to bacon.

'Are you two alright?' Lily asked concernedly. She had always felt a maternal protectiveness for Harry's two best friends, Hermione particularly, and after the scene earlier on this was only strengthened.

'We're fine thanks Mrs P... Lily,' Hermione quickly recovered after being sent a glare from the Potter matriarch, 'Just tired.'

'What happened to you lot last night?' James voiced the question on everyone's minds as they all devoured the cooling breakfast before them. 'I thought you went to bed after us?'

'Well we got talking for a bit,' Ron started, letting Hermione start her scrambled eggs on toast; he loved how her mind was always working but he'd become more and more aware of her having to inhale food at the end of meal due to too much conversation participation. 'And then we wanted to check on Ginny and Harry before we went to bed, you know see if they wanted anything.'

Remus was struck by a new mature and caring side of Ron that he hadn't previously seen before, but was delighted to see peeking out. Hermione really did bring out the best in him and vice versa.

'So we went in quietly, assuming they'd fallen asleep, but they were still talking quietly. They saw us as we tried to leave and invited us in and... we talked.'

Ron finished his story rather anticlimactically and seemed to surprise even himself. 'Well, Harry and Ginny had a few things they wanted to tell us and then I guess we just kept going. Didn't even realize we'd fallen asleep there till woke up with a stiff back this morning,' Ron added off handily.

'Thanks for that mate, though I do blame you for the sore back. It was your idea to keep the fire going.'

All heads spun to the kitchen doorway where Harry's voice had issued from. He and Ginny, sporting similar looks of exhaustion and calmness, took seats at the table and began reaching for the nearest food.

'Yeah well you were the one, who insisted on sitting on the floor,' Ron retaliated jokingly, while waving a sausage in Harry's general direction.

Harry let a small laugh that warmed every heart around the table to hear before turning to his best friend and saying with utmost sincerity, 'Thanks for last night, mate. I know I keep asking of things from you and Hermione and you always give i...'

Harry was cut off by Ron's raised hand. 'Harry, we are your best friends. It is what we are here for, will always be here for and be happy to be here for.'

Hermione stared incredulously at her two boys before giving Ron a smack round the back of the head.

'Hey! What was that for?!' Ron cried out indignantly.

'Why do you never say anything that sweet to me?!' Hermione cried back and then very quickly joined the rest of the family in fits of laughter.

'Harry now that you've made such a huge leap towards recovery, how do you feel about starting some training again?' James asked his youngest son. It was something he and Lily had discussed in the seclusion of their bedroom and both had agreed that it would be the best way of helping Harry come to terms with his past and impending future.

Harry considered his father's words carefully for a moment before responding with what he knew was the entire truth. 'I think it's a good idea,' Harry replied slowly, choosing his words carefully. 'I need to start looking forward, I know that now,' he added with a small smile, unconsciously taking Ginny's hand in his own. 'But I stand by what I said before; it shouldn't just be me. My whole family needs to be as protected as possible.'

At these words Ron stared at this 'brother' in admiration while Hermione looked on proudly, a tear escaping from one eye.

'I couldn't agree more,' said James grinning. His eyes found Remus' and he could already tell the old professor was planning lessons. 'Now Mad-Eye sent a message saying he was going to be over later today. Looks like the Order's got some new intelligence about the Horcruxes; something to do with a locket.'

At this many of the smiling faces dropped slightly, at the sudden drop back into reality. The exception being Harry who still wore an expression of genuine calmness.

'Well, we best make the most of breakfast then,' Sirius said in an attempt to restore some lightness to the meal. 'Knowing Mad-Eye he's hardly likely to stop for lunch.'

And just like that the sudden build up of tension was broken by several chuckles of agreement, as the family dived into the remains of their breakfast. And as the family members struck up meaningless but entertaining conversations and telling jokes, Harry's seemingly inconsequential question brought a smile of recognition to Andy's face and he knew then that whatever was coming they would get through it as a family because their family was finally whole again.

'Can someone pass the marmalade?'

**Ok, I have to admit that this chapter had been the most difficult to write of all of them as i simply lost inspiration of how to get to the ending I wanted. But i got there eventually. I'm not entirely happy with it and might edit it in the future, but I figured you guys deserved your finale :D**

**Thank you to everyone that has read the whole story and especially big hugs to anyone who had reviewed- they do make me smile. If you have read this story and haven't reviewed before then give it a go, pretty please. I'd love to know what you think, and if you have any story recommendations then please let me know as I need something new to read.**

**There will be a kind of sequel to this story, set in the same world, but set after the battle. I love those stories and always wanted to write my own version so I aim to give it a go. But I have a huge twist planned! Mwah ha haaa J**

**So stay tuned and a chocolate frog to you all.**


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